Republic recall for James McCarthy and the Trapattoni expecting tough test against Croatia

James McCarthy has been recalled to the Republic of Ireland squad for a friendly date with Croatia and the Scotland-born Wigan midfielder has won three caps for his adopted country but was at the centre of confusion when he pulled out of May's Carling Nations Cup fixtures and a Euro 2012 qualifier against Macedonia amid conflicting reports over an ankle injury.

He was assured by manager Giovanni Trapattoni that he still has a future with the Republic, though and he returns along with Stoke pair Marc Wilson and Jonathan Walters who also pulled out of the games and the 10th August encounter in the Dublin and Wolves striker Kevin Doyle is also named in a 32-man squad, his first call-up since suffering a knee ligament injury against Macedonia in March, which also ruled him out of much of his club's ultimately successful relegation battle.

International career for the age 15 McCarthy opted to play for the Republic of Ireland and he was eligible through his family links to Gweedore, County Donegal and he made a promise to his dying grandfather to do so the McCarthy also claimed that he would have played for the Scotland if they had offered him an international call-up first.

Early life for a McCarthy was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland and he is the youngest child of Willie and Marie McCarthy and is a alumnus of St Margaret Mary's Secondary School in Castlemilk and he grew up supporting Celtic and would later try out for their youth teams was turned down due to the large number of players the club had already taken on.

Bhoys end on a high and the Brown goal gives Celtic win over Melbourne and Brown Scored The Winner for Celtic in Final Match Down Under

Celtic ended their three-match tour of Australia on a high note following a 1-0 win over Melbourne Victory at Ammi Park and the second half goal from substitute Scott Brown was enough to give manager Neil Lennon's side their second victory Down Under.

The Parkhead club, skippered by the Greece striker Georgios Samaras as a tribute to the big Greek community in the city, were worthy winners in what was another highly competitive friendly match and had it not been for home goalkeeper Tando Velaphi and the margin of victory for Lennon's side would have been greater.

Daniel Allsopp passed up two decent chances of the including a near post header with which he should have opened the scoring and Celtic responded positively again with Kris Commons picking out McCourt at the far post with a wonderful delivery but the former Derry City player was unable to keep his header down.

Lennon's side dominated the closing stages and Striker Gary Hooper's low cross was almost turned into his own net by Adrian Leijer, before Anthony Stokes on for McCourt drove into the side netting and the Hooper was then unable to get on to the end of Samaras' inviting pass which would have surely resulted in a goal had he connected.