McCarthy will fly into Dublin on Tuesday when he will name his latest EURO 2020 squad at Aviva HQ and support a launch to promote ticket sales for Ireland’s Women’s EURO 2021 Qualifier against Ukraine at Tallaght Stadium.
James McClean, Conor Hourihane, Jeff Hendrick, James Collins and Sean Maguire have all got amongst the goals for their clubs since the friendly win against Bulgaria and the EURO draw with Switzerland in early September.
Sean Maguire got the ball rolling with the winner for Preston at Birmingham before Hourihane scored for Aston Villa in a 3-1 Carabao Cup win at Brighton.
The Irish boss saw James McClean score for Stoke City in their 2-3 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest in the Championship on Friday night and Collins scored for Luton in a 2-1 victory at Blackburn on Saturday.
Assistant manager Terry Connor was at Villa Park on Saturday to see Hendrick go head-to-head with Hourihane in the midfield battle as Villa drew 2-2 with Burnley.
“There’s been a lot of bad news on the injury front this week so it was a real positive to look at our midfield and striking options and see how well our players are doing right now,” McCarthy told FAI.ie
“Conor Hourihane got a goal in the Carabao Cup at Brighton but he also fought his way back into the first team for the League game against Burnley on Saturday and Jeff Hendrick played the full 90 minutes in that game as well.
“Glenn Whelan has been a mainstay of the Hearts midfield since he moved to Scotland so all our central midfielders are back playing again just when we need them match fit for a very tricky visit to Georgia.
“We also have forwards scoring goals at the minute and any manager will tell you that is a habit you want your front men to have. James Collins did really well on his international debut against Bulgaria and has brought that form back to Luton,” added McCarthy.
“Sean was unlucky that injury kept him out of the games against Switzerland and Bulgaria but he is fit again and scoring again. Alan Kelly watched him on Saturday and Sean is doing all the right things ahead of the squad announcement.”
With Richard Keogh out for the rest of the season and Enda Stevens suspended for the Georgia game, assistant boss Connor checked out Blackburn’s Irish defenders on Saturday as Derrick Williams, Darragh Lenihan and Greg Cunningham as they tried to snuff out the Collins threat at home to Luton and failed.
McCarthy himself saw Josh Cullen work his socks off as Charlton beat Leeds 1-0 in the Championship at The Valley on Saturday while Jack Byrne was under the microscope in the Shamrock Rovers win over Bohemians in the Extra.ie FAI Cup semi-final.
“Josh did well, but he had to – Leeds were very good but the work rate of Josh and the rest of the Charlton players got them the win,” concluded the Ireland manager.