Michael O’Neill has no right to assume Ceadach O’Neill’s bloodline – and neither do we

It’s hard to say whether the Ceadach O’Neill thing has quite reached saga proportions yet but we might not be all that far off. We have, for sure, passed the curiosity stage and there’s maybe enough juice in it now for it to qualify as an affair. Let’s just say that if the Israel unpleasantness wasn’t colonising the soccer pages, we might have tipped over the line already.

As it stands, the young Arsenal player’s withdrawal from the Northern Ireland squad on injury grounds this week means that at least one immediate endpoint to the story can’t happen for now. Had O’Neill played against Georgia next Friday, a three-year waiting period would have kicked in before any putative switch of allegiance to the Republic would be possible. Had he followed up with minutes against Hungary the following Monday, that would have drawn a permanent line under it.