SUNDERLAND have been boosted by the news that defender Dan Ballard suffered no serious damage to his ankle in the win over Southampton.

Ballard suffered the injury scare in the early stages of Saturday's hammering of the Saints, and although the former Arsenal defender stayed on and finished the game, he received treatment afterwards and didn't link up with Northern Ireland until 24 hours later than initially planned.

Ballard has since had a scan on the injury, which has revealed positive results but the 23-year-old is still a major doubt for Northern Ireland's Euro 2024 qualifier away in Slovenia on Thursday night, with Michael O'Neill's side then heading for Kazakhstan on Sunday.

Sunderland will be closely monitoring developments, though will obviously be hugely relieved and boosted by the news that there's no major damage.

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“Daniel is still a doubt,” said O’Neill on Wednesday evening.

“We’ll see how he is in the morning. We left him in the UK for 24 hours so he joined up with us yesterday and he’s just been assessed by the medical team so we’ll have to make a call on whether he’s fit enough to be involved or if Sunday is a more realistic target for him.

“He took a knock in the game on Saturday, he blocked a shot and it’s how he landed, and actually the opposition player landed on him. It’s an ankle injury. We’ve had him scanned. There’s no serious damage, it’s just about him managing his pain at this minute in time.”