Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill reveals what excites him about next generation including Sunderland duo

Sunderland duo Hume and Ballard have both received call-ups to the Northern Ireland squad by returning manager O’Neill. The duo join former two-time Black Cats loanee Jonny Evans in the squad for this month’s Euro 2024 qualifiers with San Marino and Finland.

Jonny Evans’ brother and Sunderland captain, Corry Evans, missed out on the squad after suffering a season-ending injury recently, leaving O’Neill with a fairly young squad.

“The challenge has been around making sure we’re equipped in midfield, and then padding out the squad a little bit,” O’Neill said. “I’ve chosen to do that with young players predominantly but I don’t think I’ve done it at the expense of players people would say should be in the squad.

“Those younger players do excite me. They’re in the infancy of their careers, trying to establish themselves as first-team players.

“I think we’ll ask a lot of a number of younger players throughout the campaign but we have to believe they are ready and are capable of being able to contribute, and I believe they are.”

Northern Ireland face San Marino first up in Group H with games against Finland, Denmark, Slovenia and Kazakhstan to come at later dates.

“Those games are never the ones you enjoy in international football if I’m honest,” O’Neill said. “We’ve enjoyed over the years being the underdogs and Northern Ireland always punched above their weight as the underdog.”