Martin O’Neill: Lack of World Cup football will not affect John Carew at Aston Villa

Oct 21 2009 by Lisa Smith, Birmingham Mail

The Villa boss says that will mean fewer distractions and fewer chances of injury, but knows it will be a blow to the player.

However, O’Neill believes there will still be opportunities for him to play on the wider stage.

“You sometimes think it is of benefit to you when players miss out,” he said. “But then what happens is that in the next international break these teams take the players away somewhere anyway.

“While I don’t think it is going to have an adverse effect on him, I think from the players’ viewpoint it would be great if they had something to look forward to in the summer.”

O’Neill played in the World Cup in 1982 when he skippered Northern Ireland and is well aware of how much it means to players to be part of the biggest football tournament in the world.

“If you ask any player, playing in a World Cup is the ultimate,” he said. “But they had their chance and I think Norway themselves will have felt they should have acquired more points.”