MARTIN O’NEILL HAS named a 33-man Ireland squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Moldova.

In-form Barnsley captain Conor Hourihane receives his first senior call-up as does former U21 goalkeeper Danny Rogers.

But there is no place for Daryl Horgan with O’Neill not wanting to disrupt his involvement in Dundalk’s hectic domestic and Europa League schedule.

“I am in constant touch with Stephen (Kenny) – well as often as you can – who is a very busy manager at this minute,” said O’Neill.

“They have issues with fixtures because of their success, which is fantastic on one hand, and obviously a bit of a pain on the other hand.

“But Horgan has done exceptionally well and he would have been (included) in normal circumstances, but these are not normal circumstances. He would have certainly made the provisional squad — without a doubt.

He played really well the other night (against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League) out in Holland and I have been pretty impressed.

“I have been impressed with a number of Dundalk players and their efforts this season have been absolutely fantastic.”

“But like everything else they do have fixture congestion and Stephen has been very accommodating to me in recent games. Every single time that I would ask for Gary (Rogers), he has not had a problem. We have fitted things around that.”

O’Neill also made contact with Brentford’s Scott Hogan ahead of the October double-header in Dublin and Chisinau.

But the English-born striker, who has scored six goals in his first eight Championship games of the season, is keeping “an open mind” on his international future without committing at this point.

Bandon native Hourihane caught the eye of O’Neill and assistant Roy Keane as he made a flying start to life in the Championship with promoted Barnsley, winning the league’s Player of the Month award in August.

“I have spoken to him,” O’Neill added. “He is a very nice footballer. He has been on the radar for some time. We have had him watched. Roy saw him not so long ago.

“The time he did see him play he actually came back and said it probably wasn’t his best game, which I think Conor agreed with.

But he can definitely play and he seems to have taken more responsibility on the field too.

“Hopefully, if he continues to improve the way he is going, that at some stage or another that he should make the squad.”

O’Neill also confirmed that himself and Keane have finally put pen to paper on the verbal contract agreement which they had with the FAI and officially signed a new deal which runs until the end of the World Cup campaign.

Republic of Ireland Squad

Goalkeepers: Darren Randolph (West Ham United), Keiren Westwood (Sheffield Wednesday), Danny Rogers (Falkirk – on loan from Aberdeen)

Defenders: Seamus Coleman (Everton), Cyrus Christie, Richard Keogh, Alex Pearce (Derby County) Paul McShane (Reading), John O’Shea (Sunderland), Shane Duffy (Brighton & Hove Albion), Ciaran Clark (Newcastle United), Marc Wilson (Bournemouth), Stephen Ward (Burnley)

Midfielders: Aiden McGeady (Preston North End – on loan from Everton), James McClean (West Bromwich Albion), Glenn Whelan (Stoke City), James McCarthy (Everton), Jeff Hendrick (Burnley), Stephen Quinn (Reading), David Meyler (Hull City), Conor Hourihane (Barnsley), Harry Arter (Bournemouth), Eunan O’Kane (Leeds United), Stephen Gleeson (Birmingham City), Callum O’Dowda (Bristol City), Robbie Brady (Norwich City), Wes Hoolahan (Norwich City), Anthony Pilkington (Cardiff City), Jonathan Hayes (Aberdeen)

Forwards: Shane Long (Southampton), Daryl Murphy (Newcastle United), Jonathan Walters (Stoke City), Kevin Doyle (Colorado Rapids)

- Additional reporting from Ben Blake 

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