MORE players than ever retire from international duty early these days to devote their energies solely to their club careers but Michael O’Neill jokes that he has the opposite problem: he can’t get rid of them. The Northern Irishman is making a light-hearted point about the fact that his loyal Scottish-based central defenders Gareth McAuley and Aaron Hughes will both turn 40 later this year but it really would be no laughing matter if his captain Steven Davis ever decided to opt out of international football to focus on life at Rangers. “I just won’t listen if he ever tells me he wants to retire,” says O’Neill. “He will still be sent a letter telling him to turn up.”

With 107 caps to his name already, Davis is closing in fast on Pat Jennings, whose 117 puts him at the top of Northern Ireland’s all-time list. And when you consider that O’Neill gives his 34-year-old skipper a minimum of two-and-a-half years continuing to operate at his peak, he confidently predicts that when his time has gone the midfielder will go down as one of the top five players in the history of Northern Irish football. That is quite an accolade when you consider the lofty company he will be keeping includes legendary figures such as Jennings and George Best.

“I think George has the same number of caps as me which tells its own story,” jokes O’Neill. “But while you never talk about players when they’re still playing, when you look back Steven Davis will be in the top five players Northern Ireland has produced. Possibly higher. To play as he did, to play through the bad times, he never didn’t turn up. He never pulled out of anything. In my time he’s maybe missed four games, one competitive game. Whatever legacy he leaves and how many caps he gets he’ll be remembered as one of the great players Northern Ireland have produced.”

His second debut for the club might not have gone exactly as planned at Rugby Park in midweek but you might call the midfielder who has alighted at Ibrox during this window Steven Davis version 2.0. That is because O’Neill reckons the 34-year-old who has arrived at Ibrox this January is almost unrecognisable from the 27-year-old who left for Southampton after the club hit financial difficulties seven years ago. Not only does he feel that the long years he spent operating in the FA Premier League have made him a better, more tactically astute player, he also feels that he has greater physical fitness than he ever. All that will be music to the ears of Rangers fans hoping that the club return to winning days after their Ayrshire setback at first Livingston today then Cowdenbeath in the William Hill Scottish Cup in midweek.

“The Steven Davis who came back to Ibrox is physically different from the Steven Davis who left,” says O’Neill. “He was carrying a groin injury at that point of time. It wasn’t long after I got the job and he was struggling a little bit, he just couldn’t get up to the pace of the game.

“I look at him now and he is a different player, he trains differently,” O’Neill added. “His physical fitness is far higher, albeit he is six years older. He is in fantastic condition. When you are younger, you just think your ability is going to get you through. But with all those players – the likes of McAuley, Aaaron Hughes - the ability to focus on their physical condition has kept them playing and he has embraced that as well.

“He is definitely more tactically astute too. When you go to the English Premiership you have to be. Possibly at the time Rangers were strong, a lot of success, when you have the best team and the better players there is maybe less of a tactical emphasis on how you play. So he became better tactically, certainly under Pochettino, and he has had good exposure if you look at the managers he has played under since then, Ronald Koeman, Mark Hughes, [Manuel] Pellegrini.

“Watch him play against Bosnia in the first game of the Nations League. He was up against [Miralem] Pjanic, a £100 million player for Juventus and Davo was brilliant. Rangers have a top player on their hands and they’re getting him at a good time in his career. He’s focused. There’s zero risk to bringing Steven in at this age. He wants to be there. Rangers was Steven’s first preference so he’s wanting to make a mark not only with what’s left of his international career but also club football.”

O’Neill, a former team-mate of Gordon Strachan and Gary McAllister at Coventry City, sees parables in Davis’s progress with how McAllister moved on from struggling Coventry to re-invent himself as a veteran influence on youngsters in a successful spell at Liverpool. “It was hard for Gary,” said O’Neill. “He came from a very successful Leeds team and Coventry were always struggling. It was hard to see when he left for Liverpool at 33 he’d be able to produce that form. It was harder for Gary with the type of players he was with to hit those heights in the Coventry team. But he dragged the team through a lot of games. And there are similarities. If you maintain your fitness and you’re going there with better players then you’ll respond to that. When Gary went into Liverpool he had a leadership role too. Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Danny Murphy were all younger players. Probably Davo will do the same sort of role at Rangers. If you’re playing at the end of your career and winning things it’s a great feeling. That’s what Gary did and Steven will hope to do the same.”

**Michael O’Neill was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.’