Conor Bradley: Injured Liverpool defender can still influence Northern Ireland in play-off – Stephen Craigan

Craigan added that losing a player of Bradley’s calibre is a “huge loss” but Northern Ireland can still stun Italy, who are aiming to qualify for a first World Cup since 2014.

Goalkeeper Pierce Charles is also a doubt due to a shoulder injury sustained at Sheffield Wednesday, and O’Neill will be hoping that no more of his key players get injured ahead of the game.

“Absolutely we can do it. We will have to reach a performance level we haven’t reached for a long time.

“The Slovakia game [a 2-0 win in October] was very close, and hopefully we can replicate large parts of that performance.”

Sunderland’s Trai Hume, the versatile Brodie Spencer, Portsmouth’s Terry Devlin and Swansea City midfielder Ethan Galbraith are all candidates to deputise for Bradley at right back in Bergamo.

Craigan added that a small silver lining was that the injury happened so far out from the play-offs, so O’Neill has time to rethink his strategy.

“It’s not happened right before the game so he has a bit of time to think of a strategy or game plan to tactically fill that void that Conor leaves.

“We do have a bit of cover in that area of the field, but do they bring the same qualities that Conor has?

“No, unfortunately they don’t, but when you’re a country with a small pool of players, sometimes you have to make things work.

“If we can get all of our key players fit, apart from Conor unfortunately, then we can go to Italy and cause a huge upset.”