West Ham United Academy defender Josh Briggs has been called up to the Northern Ireland U21s squad for two UEFA European U21 Championship Group F qualifiers this month.
The 19-year-old centre-half previously captained Northern Ireland U18s and also featured at U17 and U19 levels before his first U21s call-up in March this year.
Tommy Wright’s side kicked off proceedings in Group F in September with a hard-fought 1-1 draw away to Georgia. In the last international break, in October, Briggs' Academy teammate Michael Forbes - who is currently on loan at Northampton Town and misses out on the squad through injury - was on the scoresheet in their 2-0 victory over Malta. They were then unlucky to fall to a 2-1 defeat against top seeds Germany, having led for well over an hour in Belfast.
Briggs will be hoping to make his U21s debut when Northern Ireland face Latvia on Thursday 13 November (7.45pm GMT) on home soil, and Greece on Tuesday 18 November (2pm GMT) in Livadeia.
Greece currently top Group F after three match rounds with three wins and nine points, including away against Germany. Second-place Germany have six points, and Georgia are third with five. Northern Ireland are currently fourth on four points. Latvia have a single point from their three games and Malta are yet to get off the mark.
The UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying group stage runs until 6 October 2026, followed by play-offs the following month ahead of the final tournament in summer 2027 in Albania and Serbia.
The nine qualifying group winners and the runner-up with the best record (not counting results against sixth-placed teams) progress directly to the final tournament to join co-hosts Albania and Serbia. The eight other runners-up will contest play-offs to determine the last four finalists.
