Northern Ireland’s young squad have everything to play for – Michael O’Neill

Michael O’Neill believes Northern Eire nonetheless have every part to play for of their bid to achieve Euro 2024 whilst accidents hit exhausting throughout the qualifying marketing campaign.

With a visit to Denmark and a house match towards Kazakhstan up subsequent, O’Neill has named a 28-man squad that features 5 uncapped gamers and a complete of 15 with fewer than 10 caps.

Though Jonny Evans returns from the hamstring harm that prevented him from including to his 100 caps in March, Steven Davis, Stuart Dallas, Corry Evans, Liam Boyce, Josh Magennis, Conor Washington and Shane Ferguson stay sidelined, forcing O’Neill to depend on youth.

When O’Neill returned to the Northern Eire job in December there was a possibility to capitalise on a beneficial qualifying draw, and though that continues to be doable, the absence of his most skilled gamers is making it a a lot more durable ask.

Northern Eire started with a 2-0 win in San Marino of their group opener, however a 1-0 house defeat to Finland highlighted the difficulties.

Requested if the job had been tougher than envisaged, O’Neill mentioned: “I suppose it is dependent upon what the expectation is for this marketing campaign going ahead as properly. I nonetheless suppose we’ve got acquired every part to play for on this marketing campaign.

“The following two video games are going to be essential after which clearly we’ve got a double-header away in September (towards Slovenia and Kazakhstan) which shall be troublesome, so we’re going to ask a number of quite a few younger gamers on this group.

“The senior gamers that we’ve got with us, we actually can’t afford to lose any extra. I believe we’ve got eight gamers out who might all equally play for us, who’ve all been established gamers with a excessive variety of caps.

“That’s the scenario that sadly we simply need to cope with.”

It has meant O’Neill has been juggling the necessity for outcomes with the necessity to nurture younger gamers, with Conor Bradley and Shea Charles particularly requested to tackle important roles.

“It’s a totally different strategy from taking a staff and saying ‘Proper, how can we qualify? What’s our path to qualification? How can we get sufficient factors?’” O’Neill added.

“In fact, that’s all the time within the background however I believe it’s extra concerning the integration of the youthful gamers they usually should study in a short time on the job if we’re going to take that subsequent step.”

O’Neill has hosted a collection of coaching camps with senior gamers and under-21s in latest weeks, aiming to maintain health ranges excessive after the tip of home campaigns whereas operating the rule over youthful faces.

Nottingham Forest defender Aaron Donnelly, West Ham teenager Callum Marshall and Larne ahead Lee Bonis have all used the chance to earn their first senior call-ups.

Whereas the return of Evans is a serious increase, the Leicester defender will come into camp coping with the frustration of relegation and dealing with uncertainty over his future.

“He’s very upset for them to go down and he’s in a scenario the place he’s out of contract as properly,” O’Neill mentioned. “I’m positive if he was taking part in his soccer elsewhere subsequent season he would have appreciated to have left Leicester in a barely totally different manner however he was simply unlucky this season.

“Most likely, I believe by his personal admission, he pushed very exhausting to get again as a result of I believe he does make a distinction to Leicester’s staff. I believe you noticed that within the last three video games that he was match to play in. However I do know he’s eager to be part of this squad and play.

“It’s massive for us to have him again, clearly we missed him in March and I consider that Jonny nonetheless has a number of soccer left in him, each with Northern Eire and wherever he chooses to play his soccer subsequent season.”