Sunderland defender Dan Ballard has suffered a hamstring injury whilst away on international duty with Northern Ireland.
Confirmed by Michael O’Neill, Ballard suffered an injury to his hamstring in training, but it is not expected to be serious. He will be assessed on Monday.
He could still well be in contention for Sunderland when he returns from international duty to face Plymouth Argyle.
This is now the second injury in a row he has suffered whilst away on international duty.
O’Neill shares his frustration over injury
Speaking in the pre-match press conference to The Northern Echo before their final Euro 2024 qualification match against Denmark, Northern Ireland manager O’Neill stated his annoyance with injuries, like that of Dan Ballard not allowing him to have a consistent back four.
“One of the challenges in this campaign is we’ve had to constantly change the team and we’ve constantly had to change the defensive line-up and that’s where we’ve struggled to get real consistency.
“When you’ve got a real strong back four or back three and consistency, from game to game you get belief and continuity and obviously we haven’t been able to do that in this campaign.”
Who could replace Ballard?
This is a blow, but luckily the good news will be that it is not serious.
There are also plenty of potential replacements in and amongst the Sunderland squad, in the likes of Jenson Seelt, Nectarios Triantis and Trai Hume.
Centre back has been a problem area for Sunderland for a while, as they have lacked depth in this position before.
Ballard has been a regular under Tony Mowbray so far this season, scoring twice in 15 games in the Championship so far this season from centre back.