Ballard back at Sunderland after hamstring injury

Daniel Ballard has won 34 caps for Northern Ireland [Getty Images] Northern Ireland's Daniel Ballard will miss the rest of the international window through injury, but manager Michael O'Neill said the Sunderland defender "hopefully" could be back by his side's next fixtures in November. The 27-year-old centre-back suffered a hamstring injury in added time of his country's 1-0 win over Georgia on Friday night and left the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena on crutches. Having returned to the Black Cats, he had been ruled out of Monday night's hosting of Hungary and will also miss the subsequent trip to Ukraine and the return fixture against Georgia. "He needs to be assessed by his club's medical staff and we want him fit as soon as possible for Sunderland and obviously for ourselves," said O'Neill. "People recognise how big a presence he is in the Premier League for Sunderland, but naturally he's a huge presence for us here as well. "We can only wish him the speediest of recovery possible and hopefully we'll see him in November." Ballard's latest injury continues a luckless run for one of Northern Ireland's key figures. Since the start of 2024 Nations League, Northern Ireland have played 21 internationals but the former Arsenal man has featured in just 10. It has been a similar story with Liverpool's Conor Bradley, currently sidelined after January knee surgery, who has won 13 caps during the same period. "We've not had enough of him [Ballard], that's nobody's fault, it's just the nature of football and the unfortunate nature of being injured in football," said O'Neill. "When Conor got injured, we knew that Conor was going to be out for a long period of time. With Daniel, he's not had an injury of that significance but he has had injuries that have coincided with quite a lot of international football, so he's been very unlucky with that side of things. "It's more disappointment for the player because I know how badly he wants to come and play and how badly he wants to play for his club." With O'Neill's favoured system involving a back-three, in Georgia it was Blackburn's Tom Atcheson and Oxford United's Ciaron Brown who started alongside Ballard. Hull City's Paddy McNair is one of the squad's most experienced players, while Norwich's Ruairi McConville has also featured regularly in recent windows. In his first stint as Northern Ireland manager, O'Neill had a host of reliable centre-backs to call upon and is pleased to be developing strength in depth at the position once again. "It's as strong as it's been for a long time, if I'm honest," he said. "You look back to the teams of the past, when we had [Aaron] Hughes, [Jonny] Evans, [Gareth] McAuley, [Craig] Cathcart, we had really good options at centre-back, all playing at a good level. "I think with this team we have players who are at a different stage of their career but with huge potential, Ruairi and Tom in particular." More on this story Win in Georgia a 'big step' for Northern Ireland Charles brothers 'brilliant' in NI's landmark win