Charlton's Derry born winger Ruairi Harkin will fly out with the rest of the Ireland U18 squad for this week’s four-nation international tournament in Portugal tomorrow.

McCaffrey’s squad fly to Lisbon early on Tuesday morning for the three matches that forms part of preparations for next season’s Under-19 UEFA Championship qualifying series which gets underway in September.

17-year-old right winger Harkin, who has broken into the reserve set-up this season, is in Sean McCaffrey's party that will use the three games in Portugal to identify the options for next season’s UEFA Under-19 qualifying campaign and the displays in Lisbon should be a strong indicator of how we are shaping up at this particular stage of that process.”

Skilful wide man Harkin has impressed in his first season at the club, making his second-string debut against Fulham in October, and he has also weighed in with some important goals for the U18s.

The youngster's international exploits will mean that he will miss the senior academy side's game at Norwich City on March 3rd.