World Cup play-offs<\/a>.<\/p>\nThis demanding schedule includes Northern Ireland’s play-off semi-final away to Italy in March.<\/p>\n
Should they defy expectations, he would then oversee a subsequent play-off against either Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a spot in the summer tournament at stake.<\/p>\n
This mirrors his previous arrangement at Stoke in late 2019, where he initially remained Northern Ireland manager, though Covid-19 disruption saw him leave his international post before the Euro 2020 play-offs.<\/p>\n
![\"Northern](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/d1eb2dd70c7cb52885a79fe419394624.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland play in the World Cup play-offs next month (PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n
The 56-year-old was in Brussels on Thursday for the UEFA Nations League draw, which paired Northern Ireland with Hungary, Ukraine, and Georgia, but did not speak to media.<\/p>\n
Blackburn currently sit 22nd in the Championship table, level on points with Leicester above them and holding a game in hand.<\/p>\n
Former Northern Ireland midfielder Damien Johnson has been in interim charge at Ewood Park since Valerien Ismael was sacked on 2 February.<\/p>\n
O’Neill has a track record of guiding clubs away from trouble, having steered Stoke out of the relegation zone after joining mid-season in 2019.<\/p>\n
He returned for his second spell as Northern Ireland manager in December 2022, recently marking his 100th match in charge.<\/p>\n
His national side is aiming for their first World Cup in 40 years, and their first major tournament since O’Neill led them to Euro 2016, but face a tricky route to this summer\u2019s global event.<\/p>\n
With the deal anticipated to be completed swiftly, O’Neill could be in the dugout for Blackburn’s trip to QPR on Saturday, embarking on a high-stakes dual mission for both club and country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland boss Michael O\u2019Neill is set to become the new Blackburn Rovers manager (Michael O\u2019Neill\/PA) (PA Wire)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[29504,2199,31133,1144,223665,16,15],"class_list":["post-761647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-blackburn-rovers","tag-italy","tag-michael-oneill","tag-northern-ireland","tag-o39neill","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116063089923468028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Northern](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ef98933c0b0e1efce8af57525ab52aa6.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n