Gillingham’s recent signing Tom O’Connor missed the midweek trip to Ipswich Town after being called up for international duty.

The on-loan Southampton player started last weekend’s game at Shrewsbury but will miss the home game against Oxford United after being named in the Republic of Ireland under-21 squad.

Jim Crawford’s young Irish side face Italy in Pisa on next Tuesday (October 13) in a European Championship qualifying game. O’Connor is part of a 23-man squad.

Ireland currently top the qualification group ahead of second placed Italy.

O’Connor played in their last qualifier, starting in the 4-1 win over Sweden’s under-21s in November last year. That was the first time the Kilkenny-born 21-year-old had been called up for the under-21s during his last loan spell with Gillingham.

He has signed on again for the Gills for the rest of the season. Manager Steve Evans had to be patient to re-sign the player after he started the summer training with the Southampton first team.

He played 77 minutes on Saturday against Shrewsbury.

Reflecting on that performance, Evans said: “He started a little bit slowly, he got outmuscled for the goal but his team-mates should help him out, they did that in the second half.

“He gives us a real good balance. He is a wonderful player who will do well for us.

“He’s played two or three under-23 games but he said first half he felt like it was 100mph, compared to under-23 football, which is like five-a-side and it doesn’t matter whether you win or not, that’s the reality.”

Assistant boss Paul Raynor confirmed he would be missing at the weekend, saying: “That is something we are going to have to deal with as the season goes on. We were aware of it. We need versatile players ready to play and we have a full squad to chose from (on Saturday) other than Tommy which is great for us.”

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