O’Neillplaysdownlinks to vacant Rangers role

NORTHERN IRELAND manager Michael O’Neill has played down talk of him becoming the next Rangers manager following the departure of Pedro Caixinha.

O’Neill is one of the names linked with taking the Ibrox hot seat after Caixinha was sacked last week, bringing an end to a disastrous spell in Glasgow. The Portuguese boss left Gers in fourth place in the Scottish Premiership after an indifferent start to the season, but O’Neill, who lives in Edinburgh and has regularly been linked with jobs in Scotland, is adamant he is only focusing on helping Northern Ireland qualify for next year’s World Cup.

“It’s not a distraction for me at all,” he told Sky Sports. “It’s (speculation) constantly been there but it’s not something that I pay much attention to. My attention is here and trying to get my country to a World Cup finals. What may or may not happen after that is in the laps of the football gods to be honest. It’s always nice to be linked with jobs but it’s not something I have given much thought to at all.”

O’Neill has brought Sunderland’s Paddy McNair into his squad for the World Cup play-off with Switzerland, despite the midfielder only returning from an 11-month injury lay-off on Saturday. The 22-year-old ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament last November and made his senior comeback at the weekend with an 11-minute cameo off the bench in the Black Cats’ 2-1 loss to Bristol City.

Nottingham Forest’s Jamie Ward, who missed the final five games of the group stage with a calf injury, is back and O’Neill has included defender Aaron Hughes even though he is yet to return from a calf problem that forced him out of the last two games.