The Republic of Ireland have named their 23-man squad for Euro 2012 and the manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, explained that the Wigan Athletic midfielder James McCarthy had asked to be withdrawn from consideration for selection as his father has been diagnosed with cancer.

The Sunderland winger James McClean was included, however, the 23-year-old former Derry City player making the cut despite having won only one senior cap as a substitute. He said that he felt absolutely honoured and could not be happier to have been called up. "No better feelin!" he wrote.

In a statement issued by the Football Association of Ireland, McCarthy said: "I have made the very difficult decision to withdraw my name from selection from the Euro 2012 squad following the diagnosis of my father with cancer and an ongoing requirement for treatment.

"I have discussed this with the manager. He was very understanding and I thank him sincerely for that. I take this opportunity to reaffirm my complete commitment to playing for the Republic of Ireland. I would like to wish the manager and my team-mates every success at the tournament and hope that Irish fans can understand the reason for my decision at this difficult time."

Holland's manager, Bert van Marwijk, has named a 36-man training squad on Monday for their pre-Euro 2012 camp that starts next week. Van Marwijk will trim his squad to 27 after a training camp in Hoenderloo on 14‑15 May before discarding four more players on 29 May, before their friendlies against Slovakia and Northern Ireland.

Erik Pieters, the PSV left-back and Van Marwijk's first choice for the role, was named in the initial party on Monday morning but had to withdraw two hours later after tests revealed he would not recover from a foot injury in time. He has been replaced by Vitesse's uncapped Alexander Büttner.

The biggest surprise is the selection of Jasper Cillessen, Ajax's second-choice goalkeeper, while the club's No1, Kenneth Vermeer, has not made the cut.

Per Mertesacker has been named in Germany's provisional 27-man squad although the centre‑half has not played since 11 February, when he suffered ankle-ligament damage in Arsenal's 2-1 win against Sunderland.

The 27-year-old said last week that he felt confident of being fit for Euro 2012. "I think that by the time the Euro starts I will have achieved a level of fitness like never before. In the past, I have always missed out when it comes to getting the optimal preparation time. I haven't had to bend and twist to accommodate Arsenal to be fit for the Euro."

The Germany head coach, Joachim Löw, said: "We have spoken with Per and he has put in a lot of effort in getting back to fitness. I spoke to him and Arsène Wenger. We agreed that he will fly with the squad to Sardinia on Friday. Wenger said he is not ready to play yet so he has welcomed us taking him with us for training. He has got to get back to competitive levels of fitness and we hope to get him there over the coming weeks."

He is joined in the squad, to be reduced to 23 by 29 May, by Schalke's Julian Draxler and the Borussia Mönchengladbach goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen, both uncapped. The 18-year-old Draxler, who would also be eligible to play for Germany's Under-19s this summer, is one of 12 midfielders selected by Löw with the likelihood one or two will be trimmed from the final squad, but the manager is looking forward to taking a closer look at him over the coming weeks. "Julian Draxler has a lot of potential, he is very young and very quick in the one-on-one situations, and very intelligent," said Löw.

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund meet in the DFB-Pokal final on Saturday and the Dortmund players will join up for the second phase, in the south of France from 18 May, although Löw will have to wait until after the Champions League final on 19 May for his Bayern contingent.

Germany play friendlies against Switzerland on 26 May and Israel on 31 May.

Republic of Ireland

Shay Given (Aston Villa), Keiren Westwood (Sunderland), David Forde (Millwall); John O'Shea (Sunderland), Richard Dunne (Aston Villa), Sean St Ledger (Leicester City), Stephen Ward (Wolves), Kevin Foley (Wolves), Stephen Kelly (Fulham), Darren O'Dea (Celtic); Keith Andrews (West Brom), Glenn Whelan (Stoke), Darron Gibson (Everton), Damien Duff (Fulham), Aiden McGeady (S Moscow), Stephen Hunt (Wolves), Keith Fahey (Birmingham), James McClean (Sunderland); Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy), Kevin Doyle (Wolves), Shane Long, Simon Cox (both West Brom), Jonathan Walters (Stoke). Stand-by Darren Randolph (Motherwell), Paul McShane (Crystal Palace), Paul Green (Unattached), Seamus Coleman (Everton), Andy Keogh (Millwall).

Holland

Maarten Stekelenburg (Roma), Tim Krul (Newcastle United), Michel Vorm (Swansea City), Erwin Mulder (Feyenoord), Jasper Cillissen (Ajax); Vurnon Anita (Ajax), Khalid Boulahrouz (VfB Stuttgart), Wilfred Bouma (PSV), Urby Emanuelson (Milan), John Heitinga (Everton), Hedwiges Maduro (Valencia) Joris Mathijsen (Malaga), Alexander Büttner (Vitesse), Nick Viergever (AZ), Ron Vlaar (Feyenoord), Stefan de Vrij (Feyenoord), Gregory van der Wiel (Ajax), Jetro Willems (PSV); Ibrahim Afellay (Barcelona), Mark van Bommel (Milan), Nigel de Jong (Manchester City), Adam Maher (AZ), Stijn Schaars (Sporting), Wesley Sneijder (Internazionale), Kevin Strootman (PSV), Rafael van der Vaart (Spurs), Georginio Wijnaldum (PSV); Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Schalke), Ola John, Luuk de Jong (both Twente), Siem de Jong (Ajax), Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool), Jeremain Lens (PSV), Luciano Narsingh (Heerenveen), Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich).

Germany

Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen), Ron Robert Zieler (Hannover), Marc-André ter Stegen (Borussia Mönchengladbach); Holger Badstuber, Jérôme Boateng, Philipp Lahm (all Bayern Munich), Benedikt Höwedes (Schalke), Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer (both Borussia Dortmund), Per Mertesacker (Arsenal); Sven Bender, Mario Götze, Ilkay Gundogan (all Borussia Dortmund), Lars Bender, Andre Schürrle (both Bayer Leverkusen), Julian Draxler (Schalke), Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller, Bastian Schweinsteiger (all Bayern Munich), Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil (both Real Madrid), Marco Reus (Borussia Mönchengladbach); Lukas Podolski (Cologne), Cacau (Stuttgart), Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich), Miroslav Klose (Lazio).