With less than a month to go before Ireland open their World League II campaign in Kuala Lumpur against Kazakhstan, 14 of the 18-strong squad selected for the tournament by coach Graham Shaw will make their final club appearances of the year at the weekend in the EY Hockey League.
The competition then takes a break until the first week in February.
Those 14 players come from the top four clubs in the Hockey League – Cork Harlequins (five), UCD (four), Hermes-Monkstown (three) and Loreto (two).
Of the remaining quartet, Ulster Elks’ player coach Shirley McCay is taking a break from club hockey ahead of the tournament in Malaysia, Nicci Daly is playing with Muckross in the Leinster first division, Zoe Wilson is with Harvestehuder in Germany and goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran is on duty in America where her form for the University of Louisville has earned her a place on the ‘All-America’ Division One team of the year for the second year running.
Having already lost captain Megan Frazer, Chloe Brown and Deirdre Duke to injury, Shaw will hope that his selected players come through their club games unscathed ahead of their departure for the World League II which marks the start of the qualifying process for the 2018 World Cup.
His Hermes-Monkstown players will expect to return to winning ways, a week after dropping their first points of the campaign in their draw with UCD, when they host second-from-bottom Belfast Harlequins at Rathdown.
The students, four points behind in second place, have a trickier fixture, away on Sunday to sixth-placed Ards, the leading Ulster side in the table.
Third takes on fourth in the meeting of Cork Harlequins and Loreto, while Railway Union, in fifth, will be confident of boosting their challenge when they play bottom club Pembroke Wanderers at Park Avenue.
Pegasus, meanwhile, host Ulster Elks at Queens, and will be seeking their first win in seven games.
