Northern Ireland will be without both goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell and defender Daniel Ballard for the upcoming UEFA Nations League matches against Belarus and Bulgaria.
Peacock-Farrell was on course to earn his 50th cap for his country in this month’s international window.
However, he has a shoulder injury and has been sent back to his club, EFL League One leaders Birmingham City, for treatment.
Senior men’s team boss Michael O’Neill, providing an update on his squad this afternoon, further revealed Ballard has also returned to his club, EFL Championship table toppers Sunderland, for treatment on an ankle injury.
He said the rest of the players in his squad have enjoyed being back together today at Stockport County’s training ground at Carrington in Greater Manchester.
“This is a great base for us. We are developing as a team and there are good facilities here to work in. We just want to continue to progress,” he explained.
Northern Ireland will train at Carrington until Thursday when they jet out to Hungary to prepare for the game against Belarus at the neutral ZTE Arena in Zalaegerszeg on Saturday (12 October) at 19.45 BST.
After that they will be facing the Bulgarians at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park in Belfast on Tuesday 15 October (19.45 BST kick-off).
O’Neill further said: “We have a longer lead-in time to this game (against Belarus) than for previous games so we’ve got to make the most of the time we have here.”
Although he did not name them, he revealed another couple of players are carrying knocks from weekend games but he is expecting them to be fully recovered by the time the UNL matches come around.
The withdrawals of Peacock-Farrell (48 caps) and Ballard (26 caps) mean O’Neill will now have a 23-strong squad to choose from. There are no plans at this stage to call up replacements for the pair.
Northern Ireland began their fourth UEFA Nations League campaign last month with a comfortable 2-0 victory against Luxembourg in Belfast - courtesy of goals from Paddy McNair and Ballard - and then lost to Bulgaria in Plovdiv on a 1-0 scoreline.
They are currently third in League C Group 3 behind Belarus and Bulgaria, both of whom have four points to date.
Tickets for the Bulgaria game in Belfast on 15 October are still available at irishfa.com/tickets.
Image: Bailey Peacock-Farrell and Daniel Ballard together in the starting line-up for last month’s UNL game against Luxembourg.
