Dan Ballard picks up injury issue while with Northern Ireland

Transcript

00:00 The next topic of conversation is a rather frustrating one. Dan Ballard has an injury

00:05 doubt for today's Euro 2024 qualifier against Denmark and Belfast for the Northern Ireland

00:12 international team. Manager Michael O'Neill revealed in his press conference that the

00:16 centre-back was struggling with another hamstring injury and that he would need to be assessed this

00:21 morning. We don't yet have any news on the condition of Ballard, whether he'll play today

00:28 or not or be left out. But as Sunderland fans have been quick to notice on social media jokes,

00:34 I think it's the second time in a row this has happened, third time perhaps in recent memory.

00:39 Obviously Dan Ballard missed Sunderland's last game against Birmingham City, which was a 3-1

00:43 win with Silton Triantis coming in, but there's no doubt that the former Arsenal man is Sunderland's

00:49 best defender and any sort of injury question over him is a massive worry for Tony Mowbray.

00:57 Yeah, as you say, it's not the first time that he's been injured when he's been

01:00 away playing for Northern Ireland. It seems every international break he seems to pick up a

01:03 knock or a hamstring injury or something. So hopefully it's not too serious because he is,

01:08 as you say, a key player for Sunderland. Obviously he did miss the last game,

01:12 him and O'Neill and Silton Triantis came in and kind of grew into the game. I thought they were

01:17 a bit shaky early on but grew into the game. Obviously Dan Ballard is a huge loss for Sunderland.

01:23 I think he's one of the players that is kind of the most important. If you lost him for a kind of

01:28 extended period of time, it's going to have a big impact on the team. I'd probably put the other

01:34 players in that bracket. I'd put Dan Neal and Jack Clark in there. If you lost them for an extended

01:39 period of time, I think it's going to be a big impact.