Michael O’Neill says he’s convinced the time is right to take a closer look at Brighton defender Ruairi McConville.
The Northern Ireland Under-19 captain is the only new face in O’Neill’s squad for this month’s Nations League matches against Belarus and Luxembourg.
McConville, who is in Brighton’s U21 team, has been drafted in as both Paddy McNair and Eoin Toal nurse injuries but Sunderland defender Dan Ballard returns to the panel.
The 19-year-old centre-back has played for his country from Under-16 level.
McConville’s composure and leadership qualities have impressed Under-19 boss Gareth McAuley and Under-21 manager Tommy Wright.
O’Neill now hopes the rising star can take another important stride forward in his development with the senior squad.
“We monitor all of the young players,” said the Northern Ireland boss. “We’ve had the likes of Aaron Donnelly, Michael Forbes and Terry Devlin in the squad at times.
“They are all very much in our thoughts. There’s a number of young players who are out playing League football at the minute.
“Patrick Kelly would come into that category as well, but we can’t include them all at this moment in time.
“With some of those young players, particularly with the likes of Aaron and Michael who are at the infancy of their loans with their respective clubs, the most important thing is they get game time.
“Taking them away on international duty may not be the best thing for their careers at present.
“Ruairi’s situation is different. I’ve not had the chance to work with him yet. He comes very highly recommended not just by Gareth (McAuley) but by Tommy (Wright) and David Weir at Brighton as well.
“He’s at a club who really manage their young players well in terms of the pathway they create for them.
“When I was at Stoke we took players off Brighton on loan, so I know that the process will be very well managed for Ruairi when that situation comes for him.
“It’s a chance to have him involved. He’s a young player with a huge amount of potential. We don’t want any pressure on him, and there doesn’t need to be.
“He needs to come in and enjoy it and then we get a chance to see where he’s at in terms of his own development.”
While McConville will be hungry to impress, O’Neill has been given a defensive headache with the unavailability of McNair and Toal.
“Particularly in the last 12 months, Eoin has been a real find for us,” enthused O’Neill. “He’s come from a League of Ireland background into League One with Bolton and has done extremely well.
“He’s played a lot of football. He’s a similar profile to Gareth McAuley in terms of how he’s come into the game. I watch him play at Bolton and genuinely feel he can play at a higher level than League One; hopefully they can get promoted, they’ve missed out the last couple of years.
“His performances on the international stage have been very good, so it’s a blow — and Paddy has obviously been around the squad since I brought him in as a 20-year-old. Unfortunately both injuries are likely to keep them out of their club sides this side of Christmas.
“You’re taking two of our back three from the last two games out of the team, but those are the challenges you have to deal with.
“It gives opportunities — we’ve got Brodie Spencer who can play in a back three, Ciaron Brown, young Ruairi is in, Trai (Hume), Daniel (Ballard) hopefully will come back in. We have other things within the squad — Shea (Charles) has played in the back three as a younger player at Manchester City. I think we’ll compensate for it, but it will be a challenge.”
Northern Ireland go into the Belarus game at Windsor Park next week with a bounce in their step after the 5-0 thrashing of Bulgaria in Belfast.
“There were a lot of positives in that group for a number of the players,” continued O’Neill.
“Brodie (Spencer) came in and played at left wing-back and was involved in a number of the goals and he brought energy to the team down that side.
“Callum (Marshall) and Isaac (Price) as well, but there were a lot of players who had good performances on the night.
“When you’re involved in international football you always want to come away with it having been a positive performance.
“It’s not easy as some of the players are in and out of their club sides at the minute.
“Dion (Charles) has been in and out at Bolton in recent weeks but when he came here against Bulgaria he was fantastic for us.
“We hope that they continue to come here and have a positive experience because that will lead to a better feeling within the team and individually and that’s how we’ll progress as a team.”