James McCarthy stressed that helping Wigan stay in the Premier League is his top priority after winning a call-up to the Ireland squad.
The highly-rated 19-year-old midfielder has caught the eye of Republic of Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni while with the Latics this season and has been rewarded with a place in the squad for next week's friendly international against Brazil at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium.
However McCarthy is focusing all of his attentions on ensuring Roberto Martinez's side do not slip out of the top flight come the end of the season.
He told the Evening Post: "Every game between now and the end of the season is a big game for us, starting with Birmingham at the weekend.
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And hopefully we can go on a good run and pick up as many points as possible.
Results elsewhere have gone our way over the last week or two which is good.
"But we have to remain focused on our own games and take the initiative ourselves, and hopefully get three points this weekend.
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It's all about getting our heads down now and working to pick up as many points as possible until the end of the season.
"Everyone wants to fight on and fight together.
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We've got a great manager looking after us with a great set-up behind him and we all still firmly believe that we can do it."