Though his last of only two games this season came in November, Liverpool academy midfielder Tom Hill has been called up for international duty.
This international break proves to be a busy one for Liverpool, with 26 players called up for games including 14 at youth level.
Eight, including Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones, are part of the England setup, while the likes of Ben Doak, Melkamu Frauendorf, Mateusz Musialowski and Owen Beck will all be involved.
Joining Beck in the Wales under-21s squad is a surprise name in 20-year-old midfielder Hill.
Born in Formby, Hill has been with Liverpool since under-6 level, and made a first-team debut of sorts as part of the academy side that played Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals in 2019.
Less than a year later, he was sidelined with a serious knee injury that would keep him out for over 20 months, only returning at the end of last season.
A place in the senior squad for the pre-season tour of Asia followed, but another long-term injury then kept him out until November, when he made two outings for the under-21s.
Since coming off the bench in a 2-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb, however, Hill has not made another appearance for Liverpool at any level.
It is an uncertain position, with the confusion only added to when Wales announced their U21s squad earlier this week.
Whether Hill will link up with his new international team-mates remains to be seen, though, with this situation having already occurred once before in his young career.
This time last year, he was named in the Republic of Ireland under-20s squad to play an Irish Amateur XI as part of a training camp.
He later pulled out of that squad, which was no surprise given he was still undergoing rehabilitation for the ACL injury suffered six months previous.
Wales U21s are due to play Scotland in a friendly in Spain on March 26, as part of their preparations for the U21 Euro qualifiers that begin this summer.
“We get a lot of players now with dual-nationality, who can represent other countries, and it’s our responsibility to make sure the players are aware of what it feels like to be Welsh,” manager Matty Jones explained.
“Some of these lads have been born in England or other countries, schooled in different countries, all their family is from a different country.
“So we really want to give them a sense of what it’s like to be Welsh and to feel passionate within our performance.”
Jones added: “That’s one thing I’m excited for in this camp, in terms of the work we’re doing off the grass.”
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