“Inspirational” injured defender Conor Bradley should still travel with Northern Ireland for March’s World Cup play-off, believes former international Stephen Craigan.
The Liverpool full-back sustained a “significant” knee injury in Thursday’s goalless draw with Arsenal and has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
Northern Ireland face Italy in a play-off semi-final on 26 March and, if they can stun the European heavyweights, would face Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina in the final.
While the 22-year-old cannot play a role on the pitch, Craigan feels he should still travel to Italy as additional motivation for Michael O’Neill’s squad.
“Conor will be well into his rehab by that stage and sometimes as a player it is nice to go and have a change of scenery to mix it up a little bit,” Craigan, who won 52 caps as a player, told BBC Sport NI.
“You seen when he was suspended for the Germany game, he could have went back to Liverpool but he decided he wanted to be with the team and with the players.”
Craigan acknowledges Liverpool will have a say on whether Bradley travels with the Northern Ireland squad, but he feels it would be a “good move” if all parties could come to an agreement.
“You need as many positive influences that you can possibly get,” Craigan added.
“He’s our most influential player and he’s a character. He’s always lively and he’s always bright.
“I think you would miss that side of it, both on the pitch and off it.”
Craigan added that losing a player of Bradley’s calibre is a “huge loss” but Northern Ireland can still stun Italy, who are aiming to qualify for a first World Cup since 2014.
Goalkeeper Pierce Charles is also a doubt due to a shoulder injury sustained at Sheffield Wednesday, and O’Neill will be hoping that no more of his key players get injured ahead of the game.
“Absolutely we can do it. We will have to reach a performance level we haven’t reached for a long time.
“The Slovakia game [a 2-0 win in October] was very close, and hopefully we can replicate large parts of that performance.”
Sunderland’s Trai Hume, the versatile Brodie Spencer, Portsmouth’s Terry Devlin and Swansea City midfielder Ethan Galbraith are all candidates to deputise for Bradley at right back in Bergamo.
Craigan added that a small silver lining was that the injury happened so far out from the play-offs, so O’Neill has time to rethink his strategy.
“It’s not happened right before the game so he has a bit of time to think of a strategy or game plan to tactically fill that void that Conor leaves.
“We do have a bit of cover in that area of the field, but do they bring the same qualities that Conor has?
“No, unfortunately they don’t, but when you’re a country with a small pool of players, sometimes you have to make things work.
“If we can get all of our key players fit, apart from Conor unfortunately, then we can go to Italy and cause a huge upset.”
