Killian Phillips is ready to take his club form onto the international stage - and use that as a platform to break into the Premier League next season.
Phillips impressed so much during his loan spell at Shrewsbury that he won the club’s Young Player of the Year award, even though he only moved to the League One side in January.
He will be back at parent club Crystal Palace for pre-season training next month.
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But first up are a couple of games for Ireland’s Under-21s against Ukraine this evening (5pm Irish time) and Kuwait next Monday.
And the 21-year-old said: “I need to take my form from Shrewsbury into this camp and hopefully I can do well and take confidence going back into pre-season.
“I have a big pre-season ahead of me and I’m looking forward to it. I think these games are a stepping stone to getting me ready for pre-season.”
The former Drogheda United midfielder enjoyed a dream spell at Shrewsbury, playing 20 times and scoring three goals for the Greenhous Meadow outfit.
“It probably couldn’t have gone any better,” Phillips admitted.
“It was probably the perfect loan. I loved playing for Shrewsbury. I was like a little kid, playing in front of 10,000 fans every week.
“I was just living the dream, to be honest. I owe Shrewsbury a lot and the gaffer there for putting a lot of faith in me. It probably couldn’t have gone better.”
Phillips also picked up two Player of the Month awards at Shrewsbury, while he made his international debut during that spell, in the Under-21s 2-1 friendly win against Iceland.
He cannot wait to add another couple of appearances to his CV.
“Still sometimes I think about it and I can’t take the smile off my face,” he said of his first cap.
“The whole day I was smiling. It’s a privilege to play for your country. It probably is the best feeling I’ve had in football.
“To do it in front of my ma and my mates, was probably the proudest moment in my entire life, to play for Ireland at a packed out Turner’s Cross.
“To win the game in the circumstances that we did as well, I loved it.”
Ireland take on Ukraine this evening in Austria - three days after their scheduled match against Gabon was cancelled over the African side failure to turn up.
Phillips is taking the positives from the no-show.
“We’ve had a few extra days to gel because the Gabon game was called off, but I think that probably suits the group better because we got to gel and chill out with each other,” he said.
“We are looking forward to the game now, it has probably made us a big hungrier now that we didn’t play against Gabon.”
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