Ireland manager Mark Tumilty names squad for upcoming Belgium FIH Pro League fixtures

Ireland line up for the national anthem prior to a recent fixture against Australia

Their first game of this round of the FIH Pro League will be on Wednesday, May 22, when Ireland take on the hosts Belgium in Antwerp which pushes back at 6pm.

The second game for Ireland takes place the following day (May 23) when Ireland take on Argentina in Antwerp which pushes back at 3:30pm.

Ireland then play their second game against Argentina on Saturday, May 25 at 5:30pm, before the final game of the round takes place the next day (May 26) against Belgium once again at 3:15pm.

SQUAD: Jaime Carr (GK), Mark Ingram (GK), Shane O’Donoghue, Mark McNellis, Kyle Marshall, Luke Madeley, Lee Cole, Peter McKibbin, Daragh Walsh, Nick Page, Tim Cross, Jonny Lynch, Sean Murray, Peter Brown, Michael Robson, Johnny McKee, Ben Walker, Ben Johnson, Ali Empey, Matty Nelson, Jeremy Duncan, Louis Rowe.

This is the third round of games in the 2024 FIH Pro League after the two rounds in India in Bubhaneshwar and Rorkela, India in February.

The fourth and final round of matches will be hosted in London in early June.

Speaking ahead of the Antwerp series, Ireland Men's Head Coach Mark Tumilty said: "We need to focus on ourselves in these eight games (four in Antwerp and four in London) and we need to be better in possession of the ball.

"We need to learn lessons from the series of games we played in India. In our last match against India, we created a lot of chances that we failed to convert. They were more ruthless converting their chances and ran out4-0 winners. We need to be more ruthless in the opposition semi-circle.

"We played Argentina recently in a friendly series we won 3-0 in one, lost 8-1 in another and drew the third. The positives were we were competitive in two of the three matches and must continue to be competitive if we are to get a result in those games.

"Playing against Belgium in their home venue is always a tough ask. Those games against Belgium present a different challenge as they are the one team in the world playing zonal Hockey. Learning to cope with that system will be important in this series but also in Paris in a few weeks' time."