Michael O'Neill says it’s essential fully his key stars are fit and firing if Northern Ireland are to reach next summer’s Euro 2020 finals through the play-offs.
The likes of Leicester City defender Jonny Evans, Norwich City left-back Jamal Lewis and the versatile Stuart Dallas were all missing in Frankfurt.
And it showed as Germany ran amok in a 6-1 win to inflict O’Neill’s heaviest competitive defeat as national boss.
Luckily it was a dead rubber fixture but O’Neill knows he can’t go into the play-offs in March with a similarly depleted panel.
Northern Ireland travel to Bosnia on March 26 with the winners meeting either Slovakia or the Republic of Ireland in a high stakes shootout for the finals five days later.
“If we have a full squad, I believe we can beat Bosnia come March,” said O’Neill.
“But if we are five or six players down, it will be very difficult to reach the finals, it’s as simple as that.
“We were missing Jonny, Jamal and Stuart - probably three of our first-choice back four - against Germany and it was a tough night.
“I genuinely believe we can get through the play-off but we’ll need our best players available. It’s just a case of fingers crossed our absentees in Frankfurt are ready in March.”
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