Conor Bradley: Injured Liverpool and Northern Ireland defender ‘making progress’

O’Neill was speaking to the media after announcing his squad to face Guinea and France in June friendlies.

Northern Ireland will be without some key players such as Bradley, Sunderland defender Dan Ballard, Portsmouth’s Terry Devlin and Paddy McNair, who helped Hull City win promotion to the Premier League.

The games come at the end of a gruelling season but O’Neill was thrilled by the commitment of his players.

“The commitment is there. I understand that at the end of a long season.

“The players have personal goals within that situation.

“Steven Davis has 140 caps. So you only get that if you turn up. You can’t add to your caps if you’re not there.

“The players know that, and with this group, we hardly ever have a withdrawal on the basis of, ‘I’m tired’. The players who are missing have a genuine injury.”

O’Neill adds that the bond between Northern Ireland’s players mean the squad is “in a good place”.

“With this group, they enjoy being together, so they don’t see it as any type of chore to go away on international duty.

“It’s quite the opposite, to be honest.

“Having spoken to a lot of the players, I think they feel that they prefer coming away with their international team because they’re all around the same age than maybe they do with their clubs.

“I think we’re in a good place with that at this minute in time.”