Northern Ireland plan World Cup bid with Switzerland & Sweden games

The omission of Josh Magennis from the squad is not just significant for leaving McNair as the squad’s top scorer.

The San Diego FC defender is now also the sole player to feature at Euro 2016 still in the panel. With 78 caps, the 29-year-old is by far the most experienced member of the squad. Millwall midfielder George Saville is the only other player with more than 40 caps.

Indeed, excluding McNair, the other 24 players in the party have an average of under 11 caps with four players – Ronan Hale, Donley, Terry Devlin and Kofi Balmer – yet to make their debuts.

O’Neill’s second spell in charge has featured a striking changing of the guard.

Since the first game of his return in March 2023, Steven Davis, Jonny Evans, Stuart Dallas and Craig Cathcart have all retired, in Evans’ case just from the international game. That quartet accounted for 382 international caps.

Throw Corry Evans and Magennis into that equation and the tally sits at 536.

In their stead, a new core has emerged with 14 of the players in the squad for these two games aged 23-years-old or younger.

Plenty have already impressed in the Nations League but, with Switzerland and Sweden 20th and 27th in the Fifa World rankings respectively, the opposition this month will be of a considerably higher standard.

How will O’Neill’s youthful core manage the jump in quality?