Sunderland defender Dan Ballard is a major doubt for his nation's upcoming international fixtures, and his manager has delivered an update on his fitness.
How much did Sunderland pay for Dan Ballard?
Last summer, Ballard made the move to the northeast from Arsenal for a reported £2m where he’s since gone on to make a total of 27 appearances to date, but despite Tony Mowbray not mentioning any problem regarding the player, there’s some slight worry.
During Saturday’s 5-0 Championship victory over Southampton, the centre-back is claimed to have sustained an undisclosed knock even though he wasn’t removed from the pitch and in fact ended up seeing out the entirety of the game, hence why nobody was concerned that he was carrying an injury.
With the international break now underway and countries getting ready to compete in their Euro 2024 qualifiers, the 23-year-old was initially named in Michael O'Neill's Northern Ireland squad, but if the following update is anything to go by, he might not be featuring in any of the imminent fixtures due to the mystery problem picked up at the Stadium of Light.
What's the latest injury news on Dan Ballard?
Speaking following Northern Ireland's arrival in Ljubljana for their training camp and matches, O'Neill was asked for an update on his team's fitness, to which he mentioned that Ballard had suffered a setback and therefore may not be available for selection.
As quoted by The Northern Echo, he said:
"We have an injury concern over Daniel, however everyone else came through the weekend unscathed. The mood in the camp is good and the players are looking forward to the games against Slovenia and Kazakhstan."
How good is Dan Ballard?
Even though Ballard has only been at Sunderland for one full season, he’s made a fantastic impression on the side and has been hailed an “excellent” player by journalist Josh Bunting, so the fact that he could be out of club action upon his return is a huge blow.
The Stevenage-born talent, who pockets £12k-per-week, is averaging four clearances, 1.8 aerial wins and 1.2 tackles per second-tier game this season, via WhoScored, highlighting how much of a rock he is at the heart of the backline, but there's additionally so many more attributes that he possesses which make him an integral member of the team.
The former Arsenal talent, who has also recorded one assist since putting pen to paper with the red and white stripes, has the ability to operate slightly higher up in defensive midfield alongside his usual role, so he provides the boss with welcome versatility which is useful given the relentless amount of fixtures.
Following Danny Batth's recent move to Norwich City, Mowbray has Jenson Seelt, Aji Alese and Nectarios Triantis as his three natural options at centre-back so he has reinforcements to cover should Ballard not be available for selection next weekend against QPR, but in an ideal world, the boss will hopefully have the latter back in the XI as soon as possible.
