Everton starlet Tom Cannon approached by England to switch allegiance from Republic of Ireland after Preston North End loan

The 20-year-old made his Republic of Ireland U21s debut last season, during his loan spell at PNE, scoring on his debut. He has played through the age groups for the Republic of Ireland but his form in the Championship has attracted the attention of the England set up, who have been in touch with his agent.

Adding another North End link to the tale, Cannon’s agent is the brother of former Lilywhites boss David Moyes, Kenny.

Former Everton and Republic of Ireland midfielder Lee Carsely is the England U21s boss who has reached out to try and tempt the Liverpool born striker to switch to the Three Lions, after Cannon missed out on a recent Ireland camp with tonsillitis.

Speaking about the interest and potential switch, Ireland senior boss Stephen Kenny said: "It’s better to be honest about these things. I saw the story breaking about Tom in one of the English papers. Tom hasn’t said anything to me about that.

"Now obviously he had tonsillitis and pulled out of the camp and it sort of made it difficult selecting him because he hadn’t been doing training, he hadn’t been doing the programmes that we had set.

"He has a good attitude and is a good lad but I have spoken to his agent subsequently, before the Under-21s were selected.

"His agent is Kenny Moyes who is David Moyes’ brother and he just said 'let’s get this camp out of the way and we’ll come and meet you and have a chat’.

"He [Moyes] said ‘Obviously England under-21s have made an approach’ and he just needed a bit of time to reflect and see what the situation was and wanted to speak to me after the camp, sit down and have a conversation.

"He said that he just needed time to breathe and see what the situation was."

"It is what it is. He still has a lot of improving to do but he seems a good lad. I actually don’t know him that well because he’s not been in our system that long.

"Obviously I’ve had a few conversations with him. But we’re happy with the strike force we have."

Another former PNE striker is currently in the Ireland squad, Troy Parrot, and so too is North End skipper Alan Browne. Kenny’s men will face Greece and Gibraltar in Euro 2024 qualifying over the next seven days.