McGeady: O’Neill told me I need to be playing

Aiden McGeady has revealed Martin O’Neill left him in no doubt if he hoped to resurrect his game — and make Ireland’s European Championships squad — he needed to bring an end to his Goodison Park limbo.

“He told me I had to get out and play,” said McGeady who, as a loan signing, made a brief debut off the bench for Sheffield Wednesday in their 1-1 draw with Burnley on Tuesday night.

“The manager couldn’t really justify picking me if I was still in the same situation I was in.”

Clearly, O’Neill’s advice chimed with McGeady’s own feelings, after the 29 year old winger had felt the depressing effects of being frozen out for virtually the whole season at Everton.

“You’re wasting your time if you’re not playing,” he said. “It wasn’t enjoyable at all. I forgot what it was like to be a footballer. I was training Monday to Friday and then having weekends off. Once it got to October/November, I knew I had to get out.

“The last time I played was August. I’ve had a few games for Ireland since, some substitute appearances, but I was totally out of the picture at Everton. We’ve got the Euros and I have to be playing and playing well to guarantee I make the final squad.”

While the summer finals in France are McGeady’s goal with Ireland, more immediately he is keen to help Sheffield Wednesday in their promotion push for the Premier League. The Owls, who host Brentford at Hillsborough tomorrow, are currently eight points off the automatic promotion places in the Championship.

“There are a lot of points to be played for,” he said. “There is not that big a gap between us and the top two. The ideal scenario for me is to come here and play and help the club to get towards that. The owners are ambitious and it is something I want to be a part of.”

In another positive sign for Martin O’Neill, Ireland have moved up one place to 30 in the latest Fifa rankings, just one point behind fellow Euro qualifiers Northern Ireland.

But of the Republic’s three group opponents in France this summer, only Sweden trail O’Neill’s team, down one place to 35. Belgium remain on top of the world rankings and Italy are also unchanged, at 15.

Meanwhile, Irish supporters have been notified by Uefa they plan to start taking payment for Euro 2016 ticket applications from the beginning of next week.

However, they stress it is possible applicants could still be allocated “all, some or none of the tickets they applied for”, adding they will be notified of the result of the application once the payment process is over.

They also warn that, in the case of payment failure, the application will be cancelled and so have advised fans to check that they have sufficient funds on their payment card to cover the cost.