Paddy McNair prepared for centre stage with Northern Ireland

There are moments when the sheer youthfulness of a sportsman reveals itself. So it is when Paddy McNair speaks of his Manchester United debut with the likes of Ángel Di María, Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney in front of him – players McNair was familiar with through Xbox.

“I still play ‘Fifa’ now,” McNair says, as if to let you know that while his football has matured, he is still a young man.

“I was going to Old Trafford when I was 12 and watching Wayne Rooney. Seven years later I was out there in front of 75,000 people playing with him. When you think about it like that, it’s pretty crazy.”

McNair produces a similar story and reaction when asked to name the Northern Ireland players he looked forward to watching when, along with his father, Alan, Paddy would go to Windsor Park.

“Steven Davis, Aaron Hughes and Chris Baird,” McNair replies with a smile.

All three are now colleagues and Hughes has just won his 100th cap aged 36. When Hughes won his first, in 1998, McNair was two.

“On the last trip, we were training at Windsor Park and talking about it,” McNair explains, “and Aaron Hughes said: ‘You’ve only been here a year, we’ve got a new stadium and we’re going to the Euros! I’ve been playing for 17 years!’

Proved him wrong

“It’s just very exciting. When I was a little kid I remember saying to my dad that one day I’d want to play in a major tournament. He said to me that doing that playing for Northern Ireland would be pretty hard. But here we are, proved him wrong.”

McNair laughs, shyly. He has just had his 21st birthday and is more reticent off the pitch with the press than he has been on it in his last few Northern Ireland appearances.

Michael O’Neill’s squad contains only four Premier League regulars. McNair belongs to Manchester United but two full 90 minutes last season does not make him a regular. However, his presence at Old Trafford suggests pedigree and there have been glimpses of a roving midfield talent in the friendlies against Belarus and Slovakia.

O’Neill has noticed. “Versatility and quality” was a phrase he used about McNair after the 3-0 defeat of Belarus, adding: “At club level Paddy’s trying to get into a side full of world-class midfielders. It’s a difficult scenario. The previous manager saw him as a centre back.”

The previous manager mentioned was Louis van Gaal. The Dutchman gave 19 year-old McNair his debut the week after United lost 5-3 at Leicester City the season before last. It was in defence against West Ham and United won. McNair stayed in the team the next week and United won again. He was immediately viewed as a defender.

But McNair has always seen himself as a midfielder from his earliest days with Ballyclare Colts in Co Antrim.

“I think that’s my best position,” he says. “I was always a midfielder playing for Ballyclare. Until I was 16 or 17 I was really small, the smallest in my age group. No joke. I was so thin and small. I looked 12 when I was 17.”

At 12 McNair started travelling over to United – and to Chelsea. He met Alex Ferguson at his first United game in 2007 – "I've still got the picture at my house, 'me and Fergie'. I was very small and he just said that he'd start watching me when I was 16."

Versatility

Along the way United coaches Paul McGuinness and Warren Joyce witnessed the same versatility O’Neill sees today.

“We had a practice game against Burnley pre-season when I was a second-year scholar,” McNair says. “I was still 17. Barcelona were on the night before and Busquets played centre back. The manager saw that – I’d had my growth spurt by then – and I was tall and lanky. He played me centre-back and it kind of went from there.”

McNair side-steps José Mourinho questions, preferring to concentrate on "the Northern Ireland thing". But he will see one famous United manager this summer as Ferguson will be in Nice on Sunday to watch the Irish face Poland.

McNair knows this having bumped into Ferguson after the FA Cup final. McNair did not make the United bench but he could be doing much, much more for Northern Ireland in France, whatever the position.