Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill hasn't ruled out playing return of Steven Davis

Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill hasn't ruled out a return to play for his captain Steven Davis, saying he would love to see the 38-year-old back playing for his country.That's despite Davis taking short term charge of Rangers after they sacked Michael Beale over the weekend.

Davis is recovering from a double ACL tear picked up just before Christmas last year while playing for Rangers.While his playing contract ended with the Scottish club at the end of last season, Rangers kept him on their roster to help him with his rehab.

He's 10 months into that journey and O'Neill expects he'll want to complete that before making a decision on his future.Davis is in Cyprus to lead the side in tomorrow's Europa League match with Aris Limassol and will also take charge for their away trip to St Mirren on Sunday against fellow Northern Irish manager Stephen Robinson."Steve has a lot of common sense which you need to be a manager these days," O'Neill said.

"I feel he has a lot of attributes to become a successful manager if that's the path he goes down, he is emotionally stable he never gets too up or too down."I was talking to him on Monday and told him if he needed anything to lift the phone but I haven't talked to him about his playing career, he has enough on his plate but I'll speak to him during the international break after they play St Mirren."He'll have to make a decision because he can't do both - gone are the days of being a player/manager."

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