Players must dream of international debuts like the one David McGoldrick made for Ireland in November 2014, when the 28-year-old swept into the team like a whirlwind and created two goals in what was an impressive win over the USA.

The problem is, there have been quite a few distractions in the year and half since.

McGoldrick has played just once for the Republic in that time, 45 minutes against England. He was poor that day, though, and has struggled with injuries through much of the time that followed.

“It really feels like a long time ago now,” he acknowledges. “I kind of showed him what I could do then, but I would have liked to have been able to get a few games after that. But it wasn’t meant to be. I just have to look to the future now and progress.”

He is equally philosophical about his club career. Having played for both his hometown clubs back in Nottingham, McGoldrick moved to Ipswich in 2013 and made an immediate impact.

By the following year Leicester were prepared to pay around €6.5 million for him but Mick McCarthy made it clear he was going nowhere.

Leicester alternative

The player laughs now at the suggestion he might be a title winner these days had he been allowed to go and, to his credit, effectively raises the alternative possibility: that things might not have fallen into place in the way that it did for Caludio Ranieri had he been one of the players the Italian inherited last summer.

“It was two years ago and people say ‘oh, this could have happened, that might have happened’. Or if I might have gone there, someone (Jamie Vardy) might have not been in the team and his career could have turned out a whole lot differently. He might not be the superstar that he is now, you know?

“I don’t look back to that. I just try to look to the future, scoring goals with Ipswich and with Ireland.”

It is an anxious time, not knowing if he will feature this evening against the Netherlands, or Belarus on Tuesday, or whether, if he does, he can show enough to make up for lost time, but he has, he says, benefited from the exposure to international football.

He looks, for instance, at Jon Walters and sees something that he can, even at this late stage of his 20s, aspire to be.

“Definitely,” he says. “I see the hard work that he does. He’s in the corridors stretching and you’re thinking ‘Jesus, mate, ain’t you going to watch TV or something.’ But he’s always looking after himself.

Talent and work

“To see him still working his socks off like that; you know, me coming from the Championship and looking up to a top Premiership player; it shows me I have to do things like that as well.

“But all of them are like that, you know, from Robbie Keane right through the squad; they all work hard. It makes you realise that talent can only get you so far.

“Hard work gets you that little bit further. And especially now with the past couple of years, with all the injuries, that hard work is going to have to come into play now.”

He has gone some of the way by getting himself going after a season in which he was blighted by various, largely unrelated problems then showing that he was back to something approaching his best when O’Neill swung by to check in on his progress.

“I played four 90 minutes and I scored a few goals,” he says. “Obviously I’ve still sharpness to get but I feel I’m on my way. A lot of managers might not have selected me because of my fitness problems but he’s selected me so he’s got trust.

“I don’t feel like I have to go out there, get the ball and do 10 stepovers. I’ve just got to play my natural game and what will be will be. I’m confident if I get any minutes I can do well.”

He will, it seems, get minutes. And if they bring back memories for the manager of that USA game, he just might play his way onto the place.