Michael O'Neill uses his own experience as motivation for Northern Ireland stars to seize World Cup opportunity

Calling on his own experience, O’Neill made his senior Northern Ireland debut as a teenager in 1988 – two years after the country’s last World Cup finals appearance – and went on to play 31 times, the last of which came in 1996.

After leaving Coleraine, O’Neill spent time on the books of Newcastle United, Dundee United, Hibernian, Coventry City, Wigan Athletic and St Johnstone before moving Stateside with the Portland Timbers.

The current crop of Northern Irish stars has provided supporters with excitement ahead of September’s World Cup qualifying campaign getting underway against Luxembourg.

With four Premier League players – Conor Bradley, Justin Devenny, Trai Hume and Dan Ballard – in their ranks, it presents a real opportunity for Northern Ireland to take another step forward over the coming years, and while not looking to burden his squad with what lies ahead, he wants them to realise the magnitude of what’s possible.

"I think there's a balance between being too focused on it," said O'Neill. "With this group of players I think drip feeding things into them is more important than anything else.

"For most of these lads when it comes September this will be their first opportunity to play in a World Cup qualifying campaign.

"That point is the time to talk about the significance of the opportunity, that's the biggest thing when you look at it.

"Steven Davis is a great example as part of our staff, it's not like you get the opportunity every couple of years, it comes every four years.

"So if you think about it, the next one will come around and you'll be 25, the next one comes around and you'll be 29, you might not even be in the squad.

"That's the sort of message that we would reiterate at that point in time and say 'look, don't waste the opportunity'. But that's a consistent message with this group of young players anyway.

"I'm a good example to talk about, I came into the international team at 18, I thought I would play forever but they stopped picking me at 28. I didn't retire, I didn't make myself unavailable, I just couldn't get in the squad anymore.

"So you have to appreciate the period you have in the squad because you never know when it's going to end, that's my own experience of that. Hopefully when I talk to the players I try and emphasise that to them as well."

O’Neill has welcomed back Preston North End midfielder Ali McCann during this international window after the 25-year-old recovered from injury and admits he has a key role to play going forward.

"The balance in midfield is very important with how we play and Alistair is a very experienced player at Championship level now, he's very good without the ball, he's a good talker, a good organiser and we've missed him,” he added. “There's no doubt we've missed him.

"He has had injuries which have coincided with international windows. We have to manage him as well because he hasn't had a lot of football so that has to come into our thinking.

"We have to think a bit more longer term with him. Ali is one of those players that when he's not in your team you appreciate him a bit more and that probably happens a bit at club level too.

"I know how highly regarded he is at club level at Preston, but it's only when you go to watch them and see the effect he has on the team that you start to appreciate him a bit more."