Boss Michael O'Neill will hope Northern Ireland can make further strides in World Cup qualifying
Boss Michael O'Neill will hope Northern Ireland can make further strides in World Cup qualifying
Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill is anticipating that Liverpool star Conor Bradley will be ‘ready to play’ in next month’s World Cup qualifiers in Luxembourg and Germany despite missing the start of the Premier League season.
Moments before O’Neill’s media briefing on Thursday afternoon at Windsor Park to announce his latest squad – which included Bradley – Liverpool manager Arne Slot revealed that the full-back had trained for ‘a few minutes’ with the Reds having been ruled out of the FA Community Shield against Crystal Palace and last Friday’s 4-2 victory over Bournemouth due to a hamstring injury.
The timing of Bradley’s return is particularly useful for the Anfield outfit, with summer signing Jeremie Frimpong, who started at right-back versus Palace and the Cherries, now side-lined until after the international break.
Whether or not Bradley features or starts in Monday’s League game at Newcastle United remains to be seen but O’Neill was sounding positive about the prospects of the Tyrone native being available for the crucial September double header.
That will be a boost for the rest of the national team and the fans, who recognise the Premier League winner as one of the country’s most influential players.
O’Neill stated: “Conor's good. You know he'd be frustrated because his pre-season I think was going very well and, like anything, there's such competition at a club like Liverpool that you don't want to be injured because you have to try and find your way back into the team.
“But he gets opportunities. There's so many games with the Premier League season and the start of the Champions League.
“We just have to be mindful of where Conor's at physically when we look at him in these two games, but we anticipate that he'll be ready to play and we'll obviously have the dialogue with Liverpool to get their thoughts on that as well.
“Hopefully Conor can get minutes before we meet up on Sunday week.”
On that Sunday week O’Neill refers to – August 31 – Liverpool host Arsenal prior to the Northern Ireland squad assembling to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers.
Bradley would relish starting in that one.
Three of O’Neill’s players in his 26 man squad have already played in the Premier League this term – Sunderland duo Trai Hume and Daniel Ballard plus Crystal Palace’s Justin Devenny, who came on as a late substitute in his side’s scoreless draw at Chelsea on the opening weekend having netted the winning penalty in the shoot-out against Liverpool at Wembley in the Community Shield.
Conor Bradley
Conor Bradley
Devenny is developing superbly for the Eagles, and with Eberechi Eze set to join Arsenal, the 21-year-old may enjoy even more first team opportunities.
“I think (Palace manager) Oliver Glasner has a lot of faith in Justin,” said O’Neill.
“He gets minutes off the bench. Like anything, sometimes it's maybe not as much as what he'd like, but there's real competition in that team and the position that he plays in.
“I think with Justin, we have a lot of versatility in him. We played him as a wing-back in June and I thought he did extremely well. He's got a real positive attitude to play wherever you ask him to play.
“He's trying to get into a very good and established Premier League team. The players that are keeping him out of that team are moving to Arsenal and that shows you the competition for places. Hopefully, as I say, he just continues on that upward curve.
“Also he showed his confidence, belief, to come on and take the penalty (at Wembley). I think he's very highly thought of at his club.”
O’Neill was at the Stadium of Light last weekend to see Hume and Ballard make their Premier League debuts in a 3-0 win against West Ham with the latter scoring.
“Sunderland have invested very heavily in the team and they've invested well based on what I saw in the game. That club's been on a really positive journey for the last three or four seasons,” said O’Neill.
“With the team that started, Trai and Daniel and one other player were the only three players from last season.
Daniel Ballard celebrates Sunderland's win over West Ham
Daniel Ballard celebrates Sunderland's win over West Ham
“It shows you the regard they're held in by the people at that club. Sunderland clearly have taken on a strategy where they're not just going up to the Premier League to take part and get the financial benefits of that.
“They want to make sure that they can stabilise and stay in the League. If they can do that the first year, you build on that, and the two lads (Hume and Ballard) were terrific in the game against West Ham.
“I think when you have that kind of start, then you have that belief that you can deal with the Premier League. I don't think they should have any fear. It was a real positive start for both of them.”
O’Neill added that he has further been encouraged by the early season performances of other key players, such as Shea Charles at Southampton and another Championship ace in Ethan Galbraith following his transfer to Swansea City.
The key for the manager is that all of his big hitters are good to go and injury free when the matches in Luxembourg on September 4 and Germany three days later come around.