Ireland's young striker Evan Ferguson deserves a chance to show what he can do at senior level.

That is the view of Republic of Ireland coach Stephen Kenny, who spoke about the Brighton youngster's ascend to first team stardom this season.

Ferguson has come off the bench in friendlies for Ireland, but Kenny may even give him a start in Euro qualifiers in March.

“In my opinion, he (France star Kylian Mbappe) was the most important player four years ago when they won the World Cup," said Kenny, per the Sunday World.

“I thought he was devastating. He's only one player, they have a lot of good players. He's a terrific talent, there is no doubt about that, but we can't get overly fixated on one player. We've got to focus on ourselves.

“With Evan, we're still learning about Evan. He's burst onto the scene. The profile of our forwards now is different to what we had, that makes us quite a potent team I think," continued Kenny, who admitted Ferguson's performances against Liverpool's French centre-half Ibrahima Konate had provided food for thought.

“He's played against him twice and he's beaten them twice. What Evan does is make the game look simple," added Kenny.

“He takes the ball in, he protects it very well, he lays it off, he has good movement in the box.

“He has good ability to score goals with good movement and good finishing and he scores headed goals, which, nowadays, forwards are not as prolific at scoring headed goals.

“He's come through quicker than he could have anticipated."