Northern Ireland 1-0 Luxembourg: Is Jamie Donley ready to fill ‘problem position’?

Kane’s goalscoring feats came only after a number of frustrating loan spells away from Tottenham earlier in his career with Donley presently enduring similar struggles.

Having impressed at Leyton Orient last season, and made his international debut while with the Brisbane Road club, he has found things tougher in the Championship with Stoke this year.

Since the start of September, he has played only 37 club minutes, which in turn has hampered his international prospects.

Born in Northern Ireland but raised in England, Donley represented both at youth level and it was viewed as a real coup when O’Neill convinced him to turn out in a green jersey at senior level in March. Yet Monday represented his first start since that initial international window with the squad.

O’Neill thinks Donley has been “unlucky” not to have won more than six senior caps, but believes you can always see his Premier League quality.

“He just looks like that player that has been at a high level as a young player at a club like Tottenham all his days,” he said.

“Obviously he’s still a Tottenham player at this minute in time. He’s just got himself in a situation where his loan has not gone as well as he’d hoped.

“That’s happened to many players. Many players have gone through that situation where the loan is not always a success, but they learn from that as well. He’s only 20 years of age, so he’s got it all ahead of him.”

Such has been Donley’s struggle for regular football this season that he dropped back down to the Northern Ireland Under-21s as recently as last month.

Yet, on the most recent evidence, he is now in pole position to start what will be the country’s biggest game in at least five years come the play-off in March.

O’Neill hopes the “situation resolves itself” in the coming months, while Donley believes his international progress can aid his club prospects – in turn helping his chances of holding on to Northern Ireland’s number nine jersey.

“I think I need to be playing at my club to have any chance of playing in March because Michael speaks a lot about that,” he said.

“I think [the Luxembourg showing] would have helped me if someone from Stoke was watching and seeing that I’ve got a bit of quality. I’ll go back and see what happens.

“It hasn’t gone the way that I’ve wanted it to but hopefully I can start playing and scoring and that puts me in good stead for the games in March.”