Fifteen-year-old St Mary’s Catholic High School student Thomas Holland was named in the Republic of Ireland under-16 squad for their match with Italy.

Tom, who takes his GCSE exams in the summer, plays with Manchester City and was recently offered a two year Scholarship at the Premier League Club.

Holland is the sixth St Mary’s student to earn a junior international call up.

He joins Tom Taiwo (Hibernian & England), Aidan White (Leeds United & Ireland), Niall Canavan (Scunthorpe United & Ireland), Luke Hendrie (Manchester United & Scot- land), Jordan Hendrie (Bolton Wanderers & Scotland).

St Mary’s Assistant head- teacher David Geldart was full of praise for Tom.

“Tom deserves all his success. He works very hard with a steely determination to succeed. “It is hard for him to juggle all the demands on him but he does it very well.”