Enniskillen’s Casey Howe has been selected in Kenny Shiels’ 23-strong Northern Ireland Women’s squad for the upcoming glamour friendly against England at St. George’s Park on February 23.

This is the first time that the 18-year-old attacker has been included in the squad since the Pinatar Cup in early 2020, and the Fermanagh girl will be hoping to add to her two previous caps.

Howe is delighted to have been named in the squad and is relishing the experience of coming up against the Lionesses, who are the sixth-ranked team in the world at present.

“It should be good; it’s great to be included in the squad,” she said. “You would look up to a lot of the England players, so it’s exciting to be involved.”

The friendly against the Lionesses is set to be staged at the end of a training camp which will help Shiels’ side prepare for the Women’s Euro 2022 play-offs in April.

Casey is keen to push on as far as she can with her budding career and the youngster would love a crack at playing in England, although those plans have been set back by the Covid-19 situation.

“I would like to play at that level and I know my agent is working really hard behind the scenes to get a move across the water, but with Covid, it has just knocked everything back,” she explained.

It is a busy time off the pitch too for Casey, who is an A-Level student at Enniskillen Royal Grammar School.

“I’m in the middle of my A-Levels and we are doing a lot of assessments at the minute, so I’m kept busy,” she added.