As he prepares his side for a return to Nations League B, Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill believes it is important his young squad are given room to develop rather than be burdened with the expectation of qualifying for major tournaments.

In his first stint in charge of Northern Ireland, O'Neill took the country to Euro 2016 but his squad this time around is of a wholly different profile.

While a decade ago he could rely on vastly experienced figures such as Jonny Evans, Steven Davis and Gareth McAuley, the average age of his squad for Friday night's Nations League opener away to Georgia (17:00 BST) is 24.

Indeed, there are more teenagers in the travelling party than players past their 30th birthday.

"I still think this team is young, it's still not near its peak," said O'Neill.

"The average age of the team that played against France [in a June friendly defeat] was 22. At the World Cup, the average age of most teams was 28 [or] 29, so we've still a lot growing to do.

"The players that we bring into our squad are young players so they're obviously going have to learn in that environment. I think we're in a good place but it's important we don't put too much pressure on the players and we allow them to grow in the team and to grow and develop as well."

Even if it would have felt ahead of schedule for the group, Northern Ireland were only 180 minutes from making it to this year's World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Play-off semi-final defeat by Italy in March when missing Conor Bradley and Daniel Ballard through injury put paid to hopes of what would have been a first trip to the tournament in four decades.

For O'Neill, the 2-0 loss in Bergamo shows the number of variables involved in qualification campaigns.

"There's so many factors in that - there's player availability, there's the draw and who you get in your group," he added.

"I don't think as a small nation you can say we're ready to qualify. I think we have a group of players that have developed a lot over the last three years."

Friday's game in Tbilisi will be Northern Ireland's first in the second tier of the Nations League since 2020 relegation.

They earned promotion back to League B by topping a 2024 group that also included Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Belarus.

With Hungary and Ukraine joining themselves and Georgia in the group for this campaign, O'Neill believes they will be facing the calibre of sides they will need to beat if they are to make future tournaments.

"I think this is a really high level where you will play teams that have either been in the World Cup or will qualify for Euro 2028," he said.

"You're not playing against the top nations, the big nations, but for us as a very small nation, this is still a big test for us.

"We know that to qualify for a major tournament, we have to be able to win at this level and compete at this level."

West Bromwich Albion midfielder Isaac Price said he does not feel the success of his international career can be considered "that high" before major tournament qualification is achieved.

The 22-year-old already has 32 caps and feels there is potential for younger yet established players in the squad to take on more responsibility through this campaign and moving forward.

"I think we're obviously young in our age, but there's quite a lot of caps between us, he said.

"I think it's about us taking responsibility, putting a bit more ownership on ourselves, but we'll just take as it comes.

"I think we've got the players that are good enough to compete at his level. I think it's probably just down to us now to see how well we can do in the games coming up."