Martin O’Neill has warned his Republic of Ireland players not to take a backward step as they strive to reach next year’s World Cup and knock one of their main rivals, Austria, out of the running. The teams face off in Dublin on Sunday in a match of pivotal importance in one of Europe’s most competitive groups.

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At the halfway stage Ireland are level on points with the leaders, Serbia, and four points ahead of both Austria and Wales. Having won 1-0 in Vienna in November, they welcome the Austrians knowing that a draw would probably be more helpful to them than to the visitors. But O’Neill does not want such thoughts to infect the minds of his players and has urged them treat this as a make-or-break battle like their famous duel against Italy at Euro 2016, when Robbie Brady’s goal earned passage to the last 16.

“That night we knew at the very beginning that we couldn’t rely on anything else so had to go and win the game – sometimes that focuses you and stops you thinking negatively,” said O’Neill. “This is a big, big game for Austria and we want to be positive. I don’t think we could have gotten these points we have on the board without being positive so let’s not fall into our shell.”

Injury deprives Ireland of two of their best players, Séamus Coleman and Shane Long, but O’Neill is grateful that Jon Walters has recovered from the knee problem that had threatened to rule him out of action too. The Stoke City striker says he is “completely fine” after training without pain for two days this week and he is expected to start in a central role up front, possibly as captain.

Walters has become a folk hero in Ireland in recent years thanks to his full-blooded bravura and O’Neill believes the player is particularly deserving of a place at the next World Cup, having helped propel Ireland to Euro 2016 only to miss most of his team’s matches there because of injury.

“Jon was a talisman for us in European qualification but picked up injury before the competition started and only played little bits here and there so it’s nice to have him on board because he’s been terrific for us,” said O’Neill. “He’s a great warrior and, more than that, he has great ability and that helps us immensely.”

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While Walters seems certain to start, O’Neill has several other several selection riddles to solve. Most notably, a manager who has a tendency to spring surprises in his lineups must decide whether to keep faith with Darren Randolph in goal even though the 30-year-old lost his starting place at West Ham towards the end of the Premier League season and looked shaky during last week’s friendly win over Uruguay. The alternative is Sheffield Wednesday’s Keiren Westwood, who has not featured in a competitive international for five years.

O’Neill also has a difficult choice to make in central defence, where John O’Shea, Richard Keogh and Shane Duffy are vying for the two slots. Additionally, there is the question of whether to include the experienced Glenn Whelan in central midfield despite the appeal of a dynamic duo consisting of Harry Arter and Jeff Hendrick. O’Neill must decide whether to deploy the creative talents of Wes Hoolahan from the start or preserve the 35-year-old for an introduction from the bench if required.

Those might seem like relatively innocuous problems to Austria’s beleaguered manager, Marcel Koller, who has been shorn of seven players for a match that risks being his last in charge in the event of defeat. Absences in defence may force Austria to a formation featuring a back three, while their offensive threat looks weakened by the loss of the suspended Stoke forward Marko Arnautovic and injuries to Sparta Prague striker Marko Janko and RB Leipzig’s Marcel Sabitzer. Worryingly for Koller, he has been forced to rely on his fourth-choice goalkeeper, Heinz Lindner, who is reputed to be vulnerable in the face of robust forwards such as Walters.

Republic of Ireland (probable) Randolph; Christie, O’Shea, Duffy, Ward; Arter, Whelan; Brady, McClean, Hendrick; Walters

Austria (probable) Lindner; Hinteregger, Prödl, Dragovic; Lazaro, Alaba, Junuzovic, Baumgartlinger, Klein; Burgstaller, Harnik