O’Neill takes his team to the Stadion Bilino Pole in Zenica on Friday, November 13, with the return at the Aviva Stadium three days later.
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Long incurred an ankle injury in the final qualifying group game against Poland and, while the news from Southampton about his recovery has been encouraging, O’Neill is not prepared to count his chickens ahead of the biggest games of his reign as Ireland manager.
“We will definitely meet up and it would be nice to see what his thoughts are on Bosnia in terms of the change of attitude from the first game they played to the one where Bosnia beat them over there when they needed to win”.
Asked about Judge’s chances of featuring in the play-offs, O’Neill said: “If it comes to the point, I’d have less concern about putting him in now than I might have done a few weeks ago”.
Furthermore, after picking up a hamstring injury for his club, Sunderland, O’Shea’s fitness for the second leg will be “tight going” according to O’Neill. “Obviously all hamstrings are concerning but it’s less concerning than if it was a grade three”.
Speaking at the FAI’s Dublin headquarters on Wednesday, former Celtic and Aston Villa manager O’Neill – who will cut his travelling party down a week before the first leg – said his side will “do all they can” to qualify for next summer’s showpiece.
“Only time will tell”. “But I still think he is worth it for us in that he might just come on and do something or – even if he was to start a game – give a cameo role and that is why he’s worth having around”. I don’t think the result in Poland will have diminished the confidence we got from beating Germany.
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With the injured Stephen Quinn the only notable omission, O’Neill has named a familiar extended squad of 39 which will be slimmed down closer to the play-off dates.
