Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill has a track record of showing no fear in promoting promising young stars to the international stage before gaining vast club experience – and he hopes a first taste of the senior environment can benefit Liverpool’s Kieran Morrison, just as it has many before him.

It was three years ago when O’Neill selected Isaac Price, a teenager who had progressed through Northern Ireland’s youth ranks but remained a largely unknown quantity to many.

Price was on the books of Premier League giants Everton – he joined the Toffees academy aged seven – and had made his professional debut in an FA Cup clash with Boreham Wood the previous year alongside featuring off the bench in the Premier League.

While Price lacked an extensive senior CV having amassed only a handful of appearances, O’Neill had seen enough to convince him that the attacker was someone worth taking an educated punt on.

placeholder image — Liverpool teenager Kieran Morrison could make his senior Northern Ireland debut this week. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

In the time since his first call-up ahead of European Championship qualifiers against San Marino and Denmark in 2023, Price has developed into one of Northern Ireland’s most important players.

The 22-year-old has scored 10 goals in his 28 international appearances – eight of those have come in his last 13 outings, including a hat-trick in a memorable 5-0 Nations League victory over Bulgaria at Windsor Park in October 2024.

That feat meant Price joined an exclusive club of Northern Ireland treble heroes alongside legendary figures such as George Best and David Healy.

It’s not only Price – O’Neill has also called upon the likes of Pierce Charles, Shea Charles, Conor Bradley and Callum Marshall before establishing themselves at club level.

Morrison, who is still only 19, has been in sparkling form for Liverpool’s U21s this season, scoring 13 goals in 17 Premier League 2 matches, and was named on the senior bench once again for Saturday’s Premier League defeat to Brighton.

It remains to be seen if Morrison will be thrown into the pressure cooker of international football in Northern Ireland’s crunch World Cup play-off semi-final against Italy on Thursday, but O’Neill is determined to accelerate the next generation’s development as much as possible.

"When I picked Isaac Price, it was three years ago this camp, March,” said O’Neill. “We put him on the pitch, he had played virtually no first-team football at all.

"He was an U21 player at Everton and in three years you see what he's done in his career...I think that's important.

"The biggest step, the hardest thing for any young player, particularly when they're at a big club, is to get first-team football.

"There's various ways to get that – through a loan or clubs that are part of a multi-club structure and different things.

"The one thing that I have found that helps young players and helps people view them a little bit differently is if they can get international experience as well.

"Kieran obviously comes into the senior squad now, he's still eligible for our U21s as well. There's a number of players in our squad who are still eligible for that.

“We have to help in Kieran's development. Most of his development will be down to Liverpool, we know that, but if we can assist in any way, we want to be able to do that.

"We know him from his period of being in our U19s, he's been in our U21s, and obviously in recent weeks he's been around the first team in Liverpool.

"He has been in the matchday squad and had some minutes off the bench, so he's clearly doing very well. I've spoken to the relevant people at Liverpool about him as well.

"You only pick five times a year as an international manager and it's important to protect the depth of the squad as well.

"He's an attacking player, scored a lot of goals in PL2 with Liverpool's U21s, and I think it's the right time to have a look at him.”

Just like O’Neill at Blackburn Rovers, Price is embroiled in a Championship relegation battle with West Brom – both teams sit four points above the drop zone with seven matches left to play.

Price started the current campaign on fire, scoring three times in the Baggies’ opening two matches, but team struggles have coincided with a lesser goal return, netting four in his next 37 outings.

However, he struck in a 3-0 win over high-flying Hull City earlier this month and played 90 minutes in Saturday’s triumph against Bristol City, meaning Price enters the upcoming international break with confidence.

Price has remained an important member of West Brom’s squad since his £2.5million arrival from Standard Liege in January 2025, playing in all 39 league matches this term, and O’Neill feels recent results could give his talisman a much-needed Bergamo boost.

"I know what it's like in the last few weeks, I've seen how difficult those games are at the bottom end of the Championship and there's a lot of clubs down in there that probably didn't anticipate being in that position,” added O’Neill. “Isaac comes into his second season at West Brom, he's developed a big reputation, started the season really well.

"I've seen some of his games, he's worked extremely hard in the games but maybe the opportunity to score and opportunities to be creative have been more difficult.

"But I think that the goal (against Hull) will obviously give him a big boost.”