‘Nightmare’ Aaron Connolly is already winning over the Ireland players in training following his elevation from Under-21 ranks.
The Galway man, 19, lit up the Premier League last weekend with two cracking goals in Brighton’s win over Tottenham.
And it led to Mick McCarthy reaching for the phone to inform him that he would have Georgia on his mind this week, and not Italy who the 21s face in Tallaght tomorrow.
Connolly trained with the senior squad for the second day running at FAI HQ yesterday and left a good impression.
Aston Villa midfielder Conor Hourihane, 28, said: “We played against Brighton about three weeks ago and he played upfront for about 60 minutes.
“He caused our two centre-halves a lot of problems, running the channels and it’s just his pace and everything about his game, really.
“That was my first time playing against him and seeing a lot of him and the first impressions were very good.
“So it was no surprise really that he scored a couple of goals in the Premier League and he’s fully deserving of his place in this squad, that’s for sure.”
McCarthy has not ruled out handing Connolly a debut in Tbilisi on Saturday and Hourihane added: “He'll bring his own strengths.
“He’s very quick and runs in behind. He causes teams problems and is probably a nightmare for defenders.
"We'll see how he is this week in training and I'm sure that he will be very excited and keen to make an impression.
"Aaron's gone about his business and has been very quiet. But he has looked nice and bright.”
Like Connolly, Hourihane is trying to make the most of his first steps in the Premier League - albeit at a different stage in their careers.
And like Connolly, he scored his first top flight goal at the weekend in the rout of Norwich City.
Hourihane added: "I've waited for a moment like that for a long time. We’ve been in every game we’ve played and nobody is hammering us.
“Spurs away was very unfortunate , Arsenal away was very unfortunate, we had a bad decision at Crystal Palace so we feel we’re short a couple of points that we deserve.”
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