NI striker aims to take advantage of Norway injury woes
Northern Ireland striker Conor Washington is hoping to take advantage over an inexperienced Norwegian defence.
With injuries and retirements, only three of the recognised defenders Lars Lagerback has at his disposal have reached double figures in caps.
Palermo defender Haitam Aleesami is suspended, Brighton centre-back Vegard Forren is injured, while Stefan Strandberg who made the last squad is also injured.
Midfielders Alexander Tettey and Per Ciljan Skjelbred have both retired from international football while Galatasaray's Martin Linnes has been left out.
Washington has two goals for his country so far and is hoping to add to that tally against an unfamiliar back-line.
"We know a little bit and a lot of the lads aren't in the squad from the team that's played," Washington said of Norway.
"They might have to have a makeshift defence which makes your eyes light up as a striker.
"This is a big game, they've got a new manager and they're going to want to get on some sort of run to steal our spot essentially. It's really important that at home we put down a marker.
While the QPR man admitted Germany are favourites to win the group, he said Northern Ireland are "exactly where we want to be, points-wise and performance-wise, up to now".
Washington has goals in both his starts at Windsor Park, against Slovenia and Belarus and with Josh Magennis an injury concern and Kyle Lafferty lacking playing time at Norwich, the 24-year-old will hope to get the chance to continue that sequence with a start against Norway.
"I've just got to go into training this week and prove I'm the sharpest and the best man for the job," the forward said.
"If you look at the players we've got in that area, we've got lads in decent form. Liam Boyce is scoring a lot of goals, Josh Magennis has done well for Charlton and did really well at Germany away. It's good for strikers. You come away and you know you're going to be in for a battle, which I'm not sure we've had that over the last couple of years."
Charlton's Magennis is not the only player that boss O'Neill will have to assess in the build-up as Blackburn midfielder Corry Evans has not played since early January due to a groin strain.
"It's a case of monitoring those players and they've been pretty much off their feet with training - they've just been with the medical team the opening two or three days," O'Neill said.
"We knew in the case of Corry and Josh that that would be the case.
"We just have to see how Corry is, whether he's going to be able to be included or not. As usual Corry was very keen to play.
"He's only played 45 minutes with the reserves last Monday so it's been a long time for him. We knew bringing him that he wouldn't be fit to start the game but he would be in a position if we needed him for 15, 20 minutes. We'll have to assess that."