West Ham United striker Callum Marshall has been named in Northern Ireland’s squad for vital 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Slovakia and Luxembourg.
The 20-year-old has won 13 senior caps since debuting in a UEFA Euro 2024 qualifier in Denmark in June 2023.
Now, Marshall and his national teammates have two pivotal World Cup qualifiers to play as they seek a first appearance at the finals since 1986.
Northern Ireland travel to Košice to face Slovakia on Friday 14 November at 7.45pm GMT, before they return to Windsor Park in Belfast to tackle Luxembourg on Monday 17 November at 7.45pm GMT.
Northern Ireland sit third in the four-team Group A table with two games to play, three points behind leaders Germany and second-place Slovakia. Wins in their final two ties should see Michael O’Neill’s squad finish at least second in the group, seeing as Slovakia travel to Germany in their final qualifier.
If they finish second, they would go into the play-offs. However, they potentially have a second route into the play-offs after winning UEFA Nations League C3 in 2024/25, as they are currently one of the best four Nations League group winners outside top two of their World Cup qualifying group.
Marshall has featured as a substitute in three of Northern Ireland’s four ties played, and went close to scoring a late equaliser as they lost 1-0 at home to Germany last time out.
The former Linfield youngster has featured twice for West Ham in the Premier League in recent weeks, coming off the bench at Arsenal and at home to Brentford in October.
