WORLD CUP BUILDUP: Emmet Malone talks to, Andy O'Brien,  the centre-half whose progress at Newcastle has enhanced his World Cup ambitions

Three minutes of competitive football in an Ireland shirt may not be the basis on which most people would cancel their summer holidays, but as he settles into the pattern of another match week in Dublin, Andy O'Brien makes it clear that he's keeping the second half of May and most of June clear in his diary. Just in case.

Cheerful and unassuming, the 22-year-old makes it clear he is not "counting his chickens", but if the last year has broadened his understanding of football in any way at all, it has equipped him with the knowledge that there are few walks of life which provide more uncertain futures.

Twelve months ago, he recalls, he was battling away in a Bradford team doomed to drop out of the Premiership. Next month he'll celebrate a year at a revitalised Newcastle.

"It's amazing," he says, smiling, before going on to explain how the events that have transformed his career at club level have also come to shape his outlook on the international front.

"There are a lot of players in the Ireland set-up looking to play at centre-half and most of them have done very well over the course of the qualifying campaign. I'm just hoping to add my name to the list, to show that I'm there too, capable of mounting a challenge for a place in the team.

"It's not going to be easy but you can never prejudge anything in football, so I come back here for games like Wednesday's hoping that if I get my chance I'll be able to grab it."

All the signs suggest he will do just that. Having impressed at under-21 level after finally choosing the Republic of Ireland over England (by whom he was also capped at under-21 level), his game has developed considerably at St James's Park.

"It's a very different game there," he says. "At Newcastle I've been taught to play with the ball at my feet a lot more, whereas at Bradford it was all about clearing your lines.

"I think the international game involves that bit more patience again and that's something that Mick's talked to me about."

Newcastle manager Bobby Robson has been a major figure in O'Brien's continuing emergence as a serious contender for the World Cup squad, even if his references in training to "Brandy" and "Brian" have occasionally left his surprise signing of last March a little perplexed.

While others were still attempting to weigh up the extent of the young player's potential, Robson picked him up on the cheap. Since then O'Brien has been handed responsibility by the cartload and thrived in a team suddenly transformed into title contenders.

However, O'Brien says a Premiership title is a long shot. "The hope is that we can hang on to one of the top four spots and get a place in the Champions League. I'd say that's the real target around the club now."

If it comes off then O'Brien will get the opportunity to continue his footballing education at the very highest level. The hope remains, however, that he will by then already have encountered some of Europe's best strikers in Japan.