O’neill: Next move is up to the player; I’m just concentrating on Poland

“You may have reported that or someone might have done but I don’t know that,” he told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s friendly in Poland.

“I was trying to prepare for these games so I’ve left that situation alone for the past couple of days.”

O’neill’s immediate concern centres on trying to restore confidence in his team after strife on and off the pitch.

Thursday’s 4-1 hammering in Wales has Ireland and O’neill on the back foot after just one game in the new Nations League.

His squad was decimated by injuries, but the performance still left a lot to be desired and O’neill is under-fire again.

But while frustrated with the lack of quality options available, the Derryman does not agree that his job is tougher now than when he started five years ago.

He said: “Players listen to me, let me tell you. Players listen to me. I’ve had players listening to me all my managerial career.

“When I came in I had an old Robbie Keane. Robbie wasn’t able to play against the big sides the way he would have done (in the past).

“In my five years here, I’ve lacked a goal scoring centre-forward. And that does become a bit of a problem.

“When you’ve someone like Gareth Bale who can turn a game in a moment, it does help.

“We don’t have a Gareth Bale in our midst so we have to do other things.”

You suspect he would settle for a striker though.

Robbie Keane is long retired from international football and Daryl Murphy did the same after the last campaign.

Shane Long, Sean Maguire and Scott Hogan are all injured for these two games.

Jon Walters led the line in Wales but, with just two club games under his belt all season, has pulled out of the squad for the Polish game and will play no part.

His only available attacking options – Callum Robinson, Graham Burke and Aiden O’brien – have just three caps between them.

O’neill said: “That’s the situation that’s been around for quite some time. We haven’t got a Robbie Keane. That’s a major part of it when you’re not scoring enough.

“Against Wales, we did have a number of chances remarkably. But when you don’t have a natural scorer it’s a problem.

“How you resolve it? It’s not a case of us being able to go and buy someone. It’s just a case of working with what we have.”

Asked if he was frustrated by the apparent lack of fresh talent coming through, O’neill said: “Absolutely. That’s actually outside my control, believe it or not.”