While Price, who nodded home Morrison’s cross for his 11th international goal, is nailed on for one of the roles behind the central striker in O’Neill’s preferred system, Morrison certainly staked a claim to hold on to the other against Georgia at Windsor Park on Monday night.

“Thought he was really good,” said Price of Morrison.

“He’s a different threat than what we have had before. A really good crosser of the ball and he has come in and given the manager a headache with a game on Monday.”

Despite the praise for his delivery, Morrison added that putting the ball into the box was not his first instinct.

“To be fair I wasn’t going to cross it,” he said.

“I was like ‘OK, get the ball and do some stepovers’, but it was just set it back to me and I whipped it in and Isaac was there.

“Every time I got the ball, I was just trying to make something happen.”

Morrison, who represented England at underage level but qualifies for Northern Ireland through his Newry-born mother, is hoping to keep his place for Monday and make what would be a first home outing for the side.

“It’s going to be great,” said the player who made two senior Liverpool appearances last season.

“I’ve never played at Windsor Park. Hopefully I get the start, if I don’t get the start, hopefully I come on and impact it.”

For more than 11 minutes of Saturday’s pre-match news conference, Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson fielded questions centred on Sunday’s Nations League Group B3 ‘home’ game against Israel in Serbia.

The Icelander revealed that Dara O’Shea – captain in place of the injured Nathan Collins – was not with the squad, as his wife was due to give birth. He may arrive back in Backla Topola prior to Sunday’s 19:45 BST kick-off.

Hallgrimsson also gave his thoughts on the strain of this four-game international window and reflected on Thursday’s 2-2 draw against Austria.

As the first section of the media conference, which is allowed to be broadcast live, was ending, the mood soured.

One reporter tried to quiz Hallgrimsson on his thoughts about the incident on Wednesday when a co-pilot attacked a pilot on a flight travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv, before passengers managed to overpower the attacker and successfully take control of the plane.

The Republic of Ireland manager was also asked by anoher journalist about alleged racism by Irish players during last Sunday’s 3-0 win over Israel in Hungary and refused to give up the microphone.

Promptly, the news conference was brought to a close by FAI head of communicatins Kieran Crowley after calling those allegations “completely untrue” and earlier said an investigation towards the alleged abuse directed at Republic of Ireland forward Adam Idah was “ongoing”.

The allegations of racism by an Irish player, followed the Football Associaion of Ireland [FAI] investigating reports of racist abuse directed towards Idah by Israel fans in Debrecen.

Minutes before the news conference was brought to an abrupt halt, Hallgrimmson insisted he would not be drawn on either matter and would not “get involved in that as others will process that”.

“It is a game with a lot of emotions attached,” Hallgrimsson said.

“I haven’t read anything and it’s not something I want to get involved with. It goes to a process, both in our department and with Uefa.

“Something was reported by both teams so I just hope we can focus on football and football will be the winner after this.

“I have not gone into details looking at this as I have enough to think about.”