Rome [Italy], March 24: Defender Dan Ballard has been ruled out of Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifying play-off semi-final against Italy on Thursday with a hamstring injury.
The news had been expected after Ballard sat out Sunderland's 2-1 win over rivals Newcastle on Sunday with the injury he suffered in last week's defeat at the hands of Brighton.
It is another significant blow for coach Michael O'Neill, who is already without Liverpool's Conor Bradley for Thursday's match in Bergamo, the winner of which will face either Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina for a place at June's World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
O'Neill has replaced Ballard in his 28-man squad with 19-year-old defender Tom Atcheson, who the manager has been working with directly since taking the Blackburn job alongside his international duties last month.
It is a first senior call-up for Atcheson, who has played at several youth levels up to the under-21s for Northern Ireland. This season he has made eight first-team appearances for second-tier English side Rovers, starting their goalless draw with Middlesbrough on Saturday.
O'Neill's squad met up in Liverpool on Sunday and will spend time training in the city before flying to Bergamo on Wednesday.
Ali McCann knows from first-hand experience there is no reason to believe Northern Ireland cannot be a match for Italy.
The 26-year-old is one of four players in the current squad who featured when the Italians visited Belfast in November 2021 at the tail-end of the last World Cup qualifying campaign.
A 0-0 draw at Windsor Park left Italy second in Group C - and they subsequently lost to North Macedonia in the play-offs to miss out on a second consecutive World Cup finals.
The Northern Irish could have won that night with Conor Washington rounding Gianluigi Donnarumma but seeing his shot blocked on the line late on.
"We actually should have won that game at the end," said McCann, who earned the third of his 33 caps against Italy. "We could have nicked it at the end, but we played really well that night.
"I think if you go off that, then there's no reason why we can't do something similar. We frustrated them a lot that night and could have come away with more at the end. But that was class."
Source: Qatar Tribune
