Michael O’Neill insists Ronan Hale is committed to Northern Ireland and the only thing preventing him being included in his squad to play Belarus and Bulgaria is a delay in the transfer process.
The 26-year-old striker made a successful switch from the Irish League to the Scottish Premier League over the summer, scoring six goals in ten games for Ross County.
With O’Neill short of in-form strikers, he spoke to the former Cliftonville player about playing for Northern Ireland after declaring for the Republic of Ireland at underage level.
The matter of his international transfer is currently being processed by FIFA and the Northern Ireland manager insisted Hale was committed to joining his international squad.
“Yes. Otherwise he wouldn’t have started the process”, said O’Neill.
“If I take you back to the conversation I had with Ronan, I had a long conversation with him not long after he moved to Ross County and explained to him what the process was.
“He was very adamant that he wanted to do it and then the process started from there.
“The player hasn’t indicated to me that he doesn’t want to play. If he didn’t want to play, he would stop the process.
“The reality is, until the process is complete he has the right to change his mind, but I have no concerns about that.
“It’s a case of the wheels of FIFA moving a bit quicker than unfortunately they do at this time.”
O’Neill added he was unaware of any attempts by the FAI to change Hale’s mind and expected the North Belfast hitman to join the fold when his transfer was cleared by FIFA.
“I would assume that conversation would have taken place when he notified the FAI that he was going to transfer, because he had to do that.
“We’re watching him at this minute in time as if he’s our player, and hopefully we get the administration process completed as quickly as possible.
“Neither association is holding this up.”
