With Ballard missing out through suspension, and his Sunderland defensive colleague Hume one of the quartet going into the game on a yellow card, one player who seems sure to start against Luxembourg is centre-back Ruairi McConville.
The 19-year-old moved from Brighton to Norwich City in February but did not feature in any of his club’s first 12 games of the 2025-26 Championship season.
He has since played in each of the past three and was solid for O’Neill in Slovakia on what was his eighth international cap.
At Carrow Road for less than 10 months, the Canaries’ replacement for Liam Manning, who was sacked last week, will already be the third boss of McConville’s spell in East Anglia.
While O’Neill said it has not been “an easy transition”, he believes his young player will thrive with more time on the pitch.
“First of all, I think we’ve got a really top young player on our hands that came away from a Premier League club on the basis of going to Norwich City to play,” he said.
“There’s not many 19-year-old centre-backs playing in the Championship and if there are, they’re typically on loan. I don’t think Ruairi’s had the chance, to be honest. I don’t think he’s had enough opportunities.”
Regardless of the difficult spell at club level, O’Neill added that he had no hesitation in giving McConville his chance on the international stage.
“When we’ve asked him to play, he’s done extremely well. He had a difficult night in Sweden [in a March friendly] with a very, very inexperienced team, but he learned from that.
“He’s bright, he understands the game, he asks questions. Physically, he’s the profile you would want of a centre-back. He can play.
“It’s all ahead of Ruairi. All he needs to continue his development is games.”
