Former Celtic academy goalkeeper Liam Hughes has been called up to the Northern Irish men’s national team.

The 20-year old goalkeeper has received an early call-up at the early stage of his career, without having made a single senior appearance – showing how highly he is rated within the Northern Ireland set-up.

He will also join up with one of his fellow academy players from his time at the Hoops, in Conor Hazard, who remains part of Ian Baraclough’s side for the next stage of World Cup qualifying.

Northern Ireland senior men's squad update

— Northern Ireland (@NorthernIreland) October 4, 2021

Last January, Hughes completed a move away from Celtic to join English Premier League giants – Liverpool and now looks to be reaping the rewards of such a big move down south.

It is always disappointing to lose some of your better academy players at such a young age before you can see what they potentially could offer in the future.

However, it seems to show that we are doing something right behind the scenes by bringing through talented players who look likely to go on and do big things in the game.

Fingers crossed, in the near future, we can introduce a system that would allow us to keep ahold of these talented players and give them a route into the first team.