{"id":483107,"date":"2026-06-04T18:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/483107\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T18:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:09:08","slug":"heimir-hallgrimsson-not-expecting-evan-ferguson-to-be-fit-for-start-of-irelands-nations-league-campaign-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/483107\/","title":{"rendered":"Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson not expecting Evan Ferguson to be fit for start of Ireland\u2019s Nations League campaign \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evan Ferguson\u2019s<\/a> injury nightmare will not be solved by the end of the summer after Ireland<\/a> manager Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> revealed that the striker is now likely to be sidelined until October potentially.<\/p>\n

The Brighton frontman suffered an injury after an awkward fall while playing on loan for Roma in late January. Having dealt with myriad ankle issues in recent years, Ferguson returned to his Premier League parent club in February for further analysis and then opted to undergo surgery in early March.<\/p>\n

During the procedure, specialists discovered the issue was more complicated than first feared and now Ferguson\u2019s status for Ireland\u2019s autumn schedule in the Nations League<\/a> is up in the air.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the team\u2019s friendly clash with World Cup co-hosts Canada in Montreal on Friday night, Hallgr\u00edmsson said the 21-year-old will be sidelined for upwards of eight months with the injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d said the manager when asked if Ferguson could return for pre-season training with the Seagulls. \u201cI spoke to him last time two or three weeks ago, and it was more damage than the doctor thought in the beginning. So probably now he [will be] fully fit sometime in September or October but you never know. Hopefully it will be sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferguson has been blighted by ankle injuries, slowing what had been a meteoric rise for the former Bohemians man. While he has scored eight times in his 26 caps for Ireland, Ferguson is now being advised to take extra time this time around in the hope that he can truly solve the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for him and everyone, it would be wise to take this slowly and just leave it in the past instead of trying to rush it,\u201d added Hallgr\u00edmsson.<\/p>\n

In blissful sunshine, Ireland trained at Stade Saputo on Thursday morning with a full complement of players by the end of the session. Winger Jaden Umeh joined his team-mates midway through having rushed across town from sitting his Leaving Cert at the team\u2019s downtown hotel.<\/p>\n

Despite the demands of his exam schedule, with English Paper II on his schedule on Thursday, the 18-year-old Benfica prospect has made a huge impression during the camp here this week. Having made his debut against Qatar last Thursday, a second cap looks highly likely against Jesse Marsch\u2019s Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is fit, ready,\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson, who is likely to lean heavily on his experience in defence on Friday. \u201cThe only player not at training is Jaden Umeh. Hopefully he will come later in the training session, when [his exam is] finished. Some of the other lads find it strange to have a birth year this late in the group but [Jaden\u2019s] been really, really good. He needs to take three exams during the camp, two of them in the middle of the night, this one in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt needs to be in the same time as in Ireland. It is what it is. Being young comes with certain things as well. This is one of them and we encouraged him to do the exams, not skipping them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Evan Ferguson\u2019s injury nightmare will not be solved by the end of the summer after Ireland manager Heimir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7523,4700,61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-483107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-evan-ferguson","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}