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.”