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O'NEILL ON SAFC CALLUPS


Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill has selected both Dan Ballard and Trai Hume to be a part of his squad facing San Marino and Finland later this month.


LACK OF EXPERIENCE?

"What will be interesting about this window in particular is how we will cope without, at this moment in time, Steven (Davis), Corry (Evans), Stuart (Dallas), players that have been with me a long time."


MCNAIR/BALLARD

"Players emerge all the time. You look at Paddy McNair, 27 years of age, McNair needs to become a huge player in this group, a really big player and he has to embrace that role. (Dan) Ballard is the same. I already see that in Daniel playing at Sunderland. Sunderland have a young team and I see him as a leader in that team."


HUME

"What I see in some of my younger players is the ability to step in and deal with situations they face. Watching Trai Hume at Sunderland, he looks very assured and calm, Conor Bradley at Bolton is playing very well. How those players are dealing with situations gives me a lot of confidence. We will need players to emerge very quickly in the next 12 to 18 months and the team may look different to what it does now, but it will certainly grow and progress in that period."


JONNY EVANS

"Jonny is not a player that loses fitness very easily and also not a player who depends on that - Jonny's game is played with his brain, his intelligence as much as anything else. I'm optimistic he'll be fit and I know he's desperate to be involved. Although he's not had 30 games this season I believe he'll be able to come in and handle games at this level."


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