Ipswich manager McKenna thrilled for Taylor following Ireland selection

With a strong Irish presence at the club, McKenna was delighted to welcome Taylor to the team.

He stated: “We are delighted for Jack. I think everyone in the building is buzzing for Jack to be called up to the Ireland squad.

“Everyone is absolutely delighted for him. When I first spoke to Jack a couple of years ago, his career goals were to play for Ireland and play in the Premier League.

“So we are really, really happy that he has reached those milestones and now it will be about setting new milestones and pushing on from there.

“I think he has made a good impact. I think it is now four appearances he has made in the Premier League so far and I think he is a really good role model for the group at the moment.

“He didn’t play in the Fulham game or against AFC Wimbledon in the cup as we were integrating some new players and it would have been easy at that stage to drop your head.

“But his training over the last few weeks after that has been excellent, he worked in a really positive manner. He got his opportunity coming off the bench against Southampton, did really well and took the game by the scruff of the neck. And again, he was a big positive coming off the bench again last weekend.

“He has shown good attitude and good qualities and took some good steps in his career in terms of making his Premier League debut and hopefully over the next couple of weeks, his international debut.

“We are happy he is here and we know he is going to keep working hard to have as strong a season as he can.”