Ward’s Euro 2016 hopes in the balance

Northern Ireland’s Jamie Ward faces an anxious wait to find out if his European Championship dreams will be shattered by a hamstring problem.

The Nottingham Forest attacker was forced to come off in his club’s 2-1 home defeat against Brighton in the Championship on Monday evening.

Ward’s participation came to an end before half time in the game, and Forest have confirmed that his injury will require more assessment as they attempt to uncover the extent of the damage done.

Forest coach Paul Williams said: “Jamie has a hamstring problem, which is not great. We will see how he is after the medical staff see him. Hopefully it will not be too bad.”

Birmingham-born Ward earned his first cap with Northern Ireland during qualifying for Euro 2012 and has since gone on to establish himself as a regular in Michael O’Neill’s squad.

He featured five times in 10 qualifying games for Euro 2016 as Northern Ireland ended a 30-year wait for a return to major tournament football.
The highlight for Ward came in the 2-0 away win over Greece when he scored the opening goal and, with Northern Ireland’s opening Euro 2016 game against Poland less than nine weeks away,
the 29-year-old will be eager to avoid any prolonged spell on the sidelines.

Forest have just five remaining Championship games in which Ward can prove his fitness to O’Neill ahead of his squad announcement in May.

Alongside Poland, Northern Ireland will tackle world champions Germany and Ukraine in Group C in France.

Northern Ireland are 3.30 to progress into the knockout stages of Euro 2016, while they are 1.36 to be eliminated from their group.