Why Martin O'Neill must help Republic of Ireland winger James McClean rediscover his confidence

Amid the usual questions about his own future and the collective scratching around for an explanation for the Republic of Ireland’s dramatic crash in form, Martin O’Neill was asked in the aftermath of the dire goalless draw with Northern Ireland whether he is worried about James McClean.

Given everything that has gone on in his life in recent weeks, it was a pertinent question, but it was, above all else, a football question.

McClean was Ireland’s best player in their World Cup qualifying campaign, scoring the winner against Wales that secured O’Neill’s side an unexpected play-off place at the expense of their Celtic rivals.

He also scored the winner, away to Austria, the other outstanding result of that ultimately unsuccessful bid to qualify for Ireland’s first World Cup since 2002.

McClean was a whirlwind of a winger, twisting, turning, destructive. A force of nature on Ireland’s left flank that helped to disguise the frailty of their other offensive options.

That footballer has disappeared, and O’Neill knows he must try to coax him back. Quite how you do that as an international manager, who only sees his players every few months and, after this break, will not see McClean again until March, is one of the great frustrations of the role. But O’Neill must try, because he might be the only person who can.

Like McClean, O’Neill is a Catholic from Northern Ireland and also hails from County Derry. He instinctively understands much of what McClean – and more importantly his family and friends - went through during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He may not support the same cause, but he can at least sympathise with the motivations for McClean’s political posturing.

More than that, as the manager who gave him his Premier League debut back in 2011 when they were at Sunderland together, O’Neill has always got more out him than anyone else. McClean needs O’Neill now, perhaps like never before.

At the age of 29, he is floundering, on and off the pitch, the damage done to his confidence perhaps more severe than people realise. The fallout from his clashes with football supporters up and down the country in England taking a heavier toll than, perhaps, even he realised.

To use a popular English phrase, which may well irritate someone who has made no attempt to mask his opposition to British rule in Northern Ireland, McClean is not everybody’s cup of tea.

He has made mistakes, he has upset people with some of his more extreme shows of dissent – turning away from the English flag during a pre-season fixture in the USA, while at West Bromwich Albion in 2015, was insulting and stupid – but this is not the time to bring up the past, either his or Northern Ireland’s

We know McClean is a Republican who, at times, has appeared to enjoy antagonising those who questions his political persuasion and motivations. Yet, it can be forgotten in all this that McClean is a footballer, not a politician. He is not a terrorist, he is not advocating violent insurrection, he is not the enemy within.

The reasons why someone, who has repeatedly explained the historical reasons why he does not want to wear a shirt with a poppy on, continues to be subjected to such levels of abuse and vitriol in the build up to Armistice Day, are increasingly ugly.

Lest we forget, he is perfectly entitled to refuse, he is breaking no law. It is freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of thought. These are the things, the many brave people who died in two World Wars, fought to protect in this country. This is so conveniently ignored by those who wish to demonise him.

Last week, McClean, having reacted angrily to sustained threats and abuse from some of his own supporters at Stoke City, which led to a bitter clash on the touchline of the Bet365 Stadium after a goalless draw against Middlesbrough, was disciplined by his club for an expletive-ridden social media post.

It was a stupid rant, naïve in many ways, but it betrayed the emotions of someone who had reached breaking point. It has, even if he can admit it or not, broken him.

McClean is not the same player, for club or country, that he was a year ago. He seems drained. In terms of his career, this is the biggest challenge he has faced. This is what O’Neill must wrestle with, but also Gary Rowett, his manager at Stoke.

Against Northern Ireland, as the travelling fans sang “James McClean, he’s one of our own” he wilted. Nothing he tried worked, his touch was heavy, his passing wayward, his running laboured. He was duly taken off early in the second half. O’Neill knows he has a problem.

Quite where McClean goes from here is difficult to tell. His problems at club level are unlikely to disappear and there will not be a lot of sympathy towards him in Stoke.

But if Ireland are going to recover from a terrible 2018, if O’Neill is going to have any chance of qualifying for the European Championships in 2020, he needs the old McClean back. If he is lost forever, so might Ireland be for the foreseeable future.