"Go and play your game." That’s the advice that Martin O’Neill will be giving Graham Burke ahead of the upcoming friendly international against Celtic.
The Shamrock Rovers forward was named in the Ireland squad for the first time and the Ireland manager believes the player should be ready to take his chance should he get to wear the green jersey in the upcoming fixture at Celtic Park.
Burke has been in scintillating form for the Dublin club this season and is joint top scorer in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division with nine goals.
One of those particular strikes would certainly have caught the eye of the Ireland manager, as O’Neill was in Tallaght recently to see the Hoops record a 3-0 victory over reigning champions Cork City, with Burke delivering an excellent performance to go with his, now trademark, spectacular strike.
"I did see the goal just as it left his foot," O’Neill told RTÉ Sport, speaking at he SPAR FAI Primary School 5s Leinster Finals in the MDL Grounds in Navan.
"But I don't think [the call up] was necessarily just for that, although it was a fantastic goal.
"It was his overall play and I think he did really fine in the game. It's nice to go and see the players live for yourself, and it gives you an indication of their ability when you see it rather than seeing snippets.
"He has a nice ability, sometimes you’re looking at a game and someone is standing out in a particular match, your mind is thinking, ‘is he capable of doing that, let’s say, even in the Premier League?’.
"In that way it's good, and it's nice to have him in the squad."
O’Neill appears keen to really give players on the periphery of the squad a chance in the upcoming internationals and while the manager knows that it is a major step up for Burke, and others playing in the Championship, the Ireland manager admitted that it was no different in his day as be made his international bow for Northern Ireland.
"In my early days at Nottingham Forest, going into those international matches, I found that difficult, really, really difficult.
"But the year that Forest won the championship and we were flying, we were playing European football for the next couple of years.
"So international matches came, I can’t say easy, but they came easier to me in that sense and obviously I was a bit more mature, a bit older so I was able to deal with it, like in the World Cup in 1982."
O’Neill wants the young players in his squad to feel comfortable making that step up, which is one of the reasons that the manager likes to assimilate the prospects into the squad environment ahead of donning the green jersey for the first time.
"If I can cast my mind back to those days and think about what these young lads might be going through now, so I don’t think it’s a problem, I think it is something they should embrace and really go for it."
Burke served his apprenticeship at Aston Villa but ended up returning to Ireland to play with Rovers and the move appears to have been justified now that he has received international recognition.
"Now he has come back from Villa, and I don’t know, it may be homesickness, it may be a few things, maybe he didn’t get the proper break, I really, really don’t know that.
"But it looks now that he is showing that ability again and who knows what might happen in the future?
"And I think, why not? I have put some players in my squad that have made a peripheral squad first and dropped out, but I think, why shouldn’t he get the chance and if he gets the chance go and take it.
"That would be my advice to him, if he gets on the field of play in this match, just go and play your game, go and play."
Another of the new arrivals to the Ireland squad is Preston North End striker Callum Robinson, who has recently declared for Ireland.
Robinson is likely to feature against Celtic, however, the striker’s paperwork is still ongoing and as things stand, he will not be available to play in the internationals with France and the USA.
"I just want to clarify that, he will be involved in the Celtic game.
"[The paperwork] hasn’t come through yet but I have spoken to him and he is delighted to be in it."
