.... says Sunderland’s match preparations will not be helped by the loss of so many of the first-team squad to international duty this week.
And he wants to see games like to tonight's friendly fixture between England and Brazil scrapped.
The Black Cats – who face Arsenal at home on Saturday – have 11 players away representing their countries, but O'Neill says his players are at risk of injury because of needless friendly fixtures.
Training at Sunderland will obviously be with just a handful of players this week. Not ideal with such a massive game on Saturday.
Martin O'Neill: “It is difficult.
“It’s far from ideal for us, and I’ve welcomed talk of not holding so many friendly internationals during the course of subsequent seasons."