Getting back into West Brom team priority for Gareth McAuley
Gareth McAuley insists he must get back into the Albion first team before he even begins to think about his international future.
The Baggies defender is set to line-up for Northern Ireland against Germany tonight having played just 62 minutes of first-team action since returning from injury suffered on international duty back in June.
The 37-year-old suffered a thigh injury against Azerbaijan which disrupted his pre-season and sidelined him for Albion’s opening games of the season.
Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill has said he would be ‘begging’ McAuley to continue his international career although there have yet to be any conversations about his international future stretching beyond next summer’s World Cup in Russia, should the Green and White Army qualify.
McAuley, who failed to make the last two matchday squads for the Baggie in the Premier league, insisted: “For me, I need to get back to playing club football.
“If I’m not playing club football then there’s not even a conversation to be had.
“My first priority is to get back fully fit and challenge for a place in the team at West Brom. When that time comes, we’ll cross that bridge.”
And he admitted a result against the reigning world champions in Belfast tonight would be the most significant of his Northern Irish career.
It would confirm a play-off place for Northern Ireland and even leave them with a possibility of overhauling Joachim Low’s side into Group C’s top spot during the final round of games.
And with a clash against Norway in Oslo three days later, McAuley insists attention would soon turn to what comes next.
“It would probably be the biggest result that I’ll have had in international football,” the added.
“The pure stat they’ve never lost a World Cup qualifier away from home is ridiculous really.
“It would be incredible (but) I’ll be looking straight to the Norway game and thinking about getting a result there and recovering to do that.
“I think that’s a big thing over the last few years, if we got a result like that (in the past) we’d have probably hit the town and celebrated and thought happy days!
“But now there’s a completely different mentality within the group, we’d be looking straight into the Norway game.
“With the results and everything that comes with it, everyone wants to be successful and wants the good times to continue.”
