Michael O'Neill pays tribute to Aaron Hughes as defender prepares to win 100th Northern Ireland cap

The 36-year-old, who spent last season with Melbourne City, had initially called time on his international career in 2011 after making 79 caps only to rejoin the fold when O’Neill took the job three months later.

O’Neill explained how Hughes’ commitment at the start of his time in charge was a boost and he could now select the defender on Saturday against Slovakia, the country whom he made his debut against in 1998.

“We got an inkling that he would have welcomed a conversation (about coming back), which I would have had anyway, but it made it slightly easier,” O’Neill revealed.

“He phoned me on a Saturday night, I’d been at a game and flown back from Belfast, and it was a real positive from me having just been in the job that Aaron wanted to come back.

“I hadn’t put a timescale on that. We had a game three weeks later against Norway but he made his intentions very clear from the off that if he was going to come back, he wanted to come back as soon as possible. It was a positive for the whole squad.

“The four years I’ve had with Aaron have been positive. He’s been a good player for me. In the past year he hasn’t started as many games but he’s still a very important member for the squad, a great example to all the young players but ultimately still a player that has an awful lot to offer.

“He trains well, looks after himself and if you’re looking at your dugout and you’re needing a player to go on the pitch at a certain moment in time, it’s nice to have people like that to choose from.”