Banbridge goalkeeper Luke Roleston will be hoping to make his first Ireland appearance after being called up as one of three uncapped players for the first stage of the FIH Pro League.
The shot stopper, who turns 25 on Monday, will compete for game time alongside James Milliken having been included as one of only two goalkeepers in Mark Tumilty’s squad to travel to Argentina next month.
Roleston is joined in the squad by fellow uncapped members Adam Walker and Ben Pasley, with Darragh Walsh, Ben Walker and Lee Cole providing the experience as international centurions.
Ireland will take on England and Argentina twice each between December 12 and 16, with Kyle Marshall captaining the squad in the absence of Sean Murray.
While Ireland were relegated from the Pro League last season after finishing ninth, they maintained their place in the top tier courtesy of New Zealand declining to take their place, handing Tumilty’s side a second season competing against the rest of the best sides in the world.
Last season they impressed, with two wins over the world’s fourth-ranked nation Belgium in Antwerp the highlights, and they have trips to India in February and the Netherlands and Belgium, both in June, to look forward to.
“When we entered the Pro League last year we went on a bit of a journey into the unknown to an extent. But we learned quickly during the India stage what the challenges would be,” commented Tumilty.
“There’s an element of the unknown facing England and Argentina during this part of the Pro League because both teams appointed new coaches since we last played them. The systems they played before will be modified to some extent by their new coaches. That’s another interesting challenge and one we are looking forward to.
“It’s a nice time to restart the program. It gives us early purpose to our program after Paris and will be beneficial to the group.
“We need to be more clinical when we have possession, and we’ve got to be better at holding on to the ball. We’ve got to be better at building better phases of play and spending more time in the opposition half.
“We need more positive results in this second go at the Pro League. We had the two results against Belgium and lost narrowly to India, but we also suffered some heavy defeats.
“The experience gained at the FIH Pro League gave the players the knowledge of what is required to take on the top-eight nations in the world at hockey. We’ve a lot of work to do to get into the top-ten and remain there.”
Ireland squad: Luke Roleston (GK), James Milliken (GK), Kyle Marshall (captain), Peter McKibbin, Mark McNellis, Fergus Gibson, Tim Cross, Lee Cole, Adam Walker, Peter Brown, Jonny Lynch, Daragh Walsh, Nick Page, Luke Witherow, Ben Pasley, Ali Empey, Ben Walker, Conor Empey, Ben Nelson, Louis Rowe.