Northern Ireland v Luxembuourg (05/09/2024)

He won his first five full international caps whilst playing for Millwall before he moved to Middlesbrough for a reported £8 million following a successful loan spell. During his time at Boro he played a further 26 internationals before returning to Millwall in the summer of 2021. He has since added a further 20 caps as a Millwall player over that three-year period.

Saville began his professional career at Chelsea, although he never made a first team appearance for the west London outfit. Over the past 12 years he has played a total of 424 club games, scoring 40 goals. He has played for: Brentford (loan: 44 apps, four goals); Wolves (57 apps, six goals); Bristol City (loan - eight apps, one goal); Middlesbrough (118 apps, 12 goals) and Millwall (197 apps, 17 goals).

Nineteen of George’s 51 caps have come in Euro qualifiers, 12 in Nations League games, 10 in World Cup qualifiers and another 10 in friendly internationals. Those 51 appearances came in the following months: 11 in both September and November; 10 in October and March; eight in June, plus one in May, which was a 3-0 friendly victory over Malta in Austria in 2021.

Saville has chalked up three assists in his seven years as a

senior international. His first was for Stuart Dallas in a 3-0 friendly victory over Israel in Belfast in 2018. His second was when he won a penalty which Steven Davis converted in a 2-0 ECQ win at home to Estonia in March 2019 and later that year he set up Michael Smith for a spectacular early goal in a 6-1 defeat to Germany in a Euro qualifier in Frankfurt.

A total of 40 of Saville’s full international caps have come during Michael O’Neill’s two stints in charge of Northern Ireland. The remaining 11 appearances all came during Ian Baraclough’s tenure between September 2020 and September 2022.

IRISHFA.COM

19