Edson Álvarez and Dinos Mavropanos have been called up by Mexico and Greece respectively for international clashes later this month.
Midfielder Álvarez, who has scored five goals in 83 appearances for his country, has been included in Javier Aguirre’s 23-man Mexico squad for two crucial CONCACAF Nations League Finals matches, where they will ultimately look to win the competition for the first time.
El Tri, Nations League runners-up in 2021 and 2024, advanced to this year’s semi-finals with a 4-2 aggregate win over Honduras in the last eight in November, and are now set to take on Canada at the SoFi Stadium in California - at 2.30am GMT on Friday 21 March - for a spot in the 2025 showpiece.
They will play the United States or Panama in their second of two games, in either the final (1.30am GMT, Monday 24 March) or third-place play-off (10pm GMT, Sunday 23 March).
Mavropanos, meanwhile, will join up with his international teammates for an enticing two-legged UEFA Nations League A/B play-off tie against Scotland.
Our No15 started all six of his nation’s regular Group B2 games between September and November 2024, including the memorable 2-1 win over England at Wembley, as they finished second in the table behind the Three Lions on goal difference.
Now, to earn promotion to League A, Ivan Jovanović’s side must overcome Steve Clarke’s Scotland, who finished third in Group A1, behind Portugal and Croatia.
The first leg is set to take place at Olympiacos’ Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus at 7.45pm GMT on Thursday 20 March, before the teams do it all again at Hampden Park at 5pm GMT on Sunday 23 March.
Elsewhere, forward Callum Marshall has been rewarded for his impressive performances on loan at Huddersfield Town in EFL League One by being named in Michael O’Neill’s senior Northern Ireland squad.
The 20-year-old has scored nine goals in 38 games in all competitions for the promotion-chasing Terriers this term, and he will be looking to add to his eight caps for his country when they contest friendlies against Switzerland (7.45pm GMT, Friday 21 March) and Sweden (6pm GMT, Tuesday 25 March) in Belfast and Stockholm respectively.
Academy goalkeeper Krisztián Hegyi, who is currently on loan at Debreceni VSC in his homeland, has been included in Hungary’s senior squad for their UEFA Nations League A/B play-off match-up against Turkey.
The teams will first face off in Istanbul at 5pm GMT on Thursday 20 March, before the return leg in Budapest at 5pm GMT on Sunday 23 March.
Young midfielder Patrick Kelly, who is enjoying a productive loan spell at EFL League Two outfit Doncaster Rovers, has been called up by Northern Ireland U21s for friendlies against Ukraine U20s (Thursday 20 March), Uzbekistan U21s (Saturday 22 March) and Turkmenistan U21s (Tuesday 25 March), all to be played in Antalya, Turkey. All three kick-off times are unconfirmed as it stands.