Niall Huggins has earned his first senior international call-up following an impressive start to the season with Sunderland.
The Wales national team announced their 23-man squad for the upcoming 2024 EURO Qualifiers this morning, with Huggins included for the first time.
The defender made his U21 debut whilst with Leeds United in 2019 but hadn’t made any further appearances during his time on Wearside after enduring two years of constant injury problems.
However, Huggins approached the current campaign fully fit and took his opportunity to impress when Dennis Cirkin was sidelined in September.
The ‘amazing’ 22-year-old has now started Sunderland’s past ten games in the Championship and had supporters on his feet when he scored his first (exceptional) goal for the club against Watford last month.
Huggins, who qualifies for Wales through his Bangor-born father, had so far failed to feature for the senior team during this season’s international breaks.
However, his hard work looks to have paid off this time round as he is finally earned a call-up to Rob Page’s side.
Huggins links up with former Sunderland loanee Nathan Broadhead, as well as Premier League stars such as Brennan Johnson, Harry Wilson and Neco Williams.
Niall Huggins deserves his call-up, but will he lose his place in the Sunderland squad?
Niall Huggins‘ confidence is sky high at the moment and you can definitely tell that on the pitch too.
The defender has looked very solid since coming into the team, and has goal against Watford has resulted in him getting forward a lot more.
The youngster definitely deserves his place in the Wales team and it wouldn’t surprise me if he can tie down a regular place in their line-up, however it might not be long before he loses his place under Tony Mowbray.
Like I said, he has been very good, but Dennis Cirkin is still just better.
The former Tottenham Hotspur full-back has been one of Sunderland’s most consistent players in recent years and even chipped in with five goals last season.
While I wouldn’t expect Mowbray to drop Huggins straight away, I expect Cirkin to wriggle has way back into the fold during the busy winter period.