Dan Ballard insists 'the sky is the limit' for him at Sunderland once he gets back to playing regularly. The Northern Ireland international defender made a huge impact in his first season on Wearside since his move from Arsenal despite missing half of the Championship campaign due to injury.
He was sidelined for four months early in the season with a fractured foot he sustained against QPR in August, and then missed the last six weeks of the season - including the play-offs - after picking up a hamstring injury while on international duty at the end of March. Ballard was pushing to be fit in time to feature in the play-offs but broke down, however he is now back on track and has started training already in a bid to be fully up to speed when the squad reports back to the Academy of Light at the end of the month for pre-season training.
"I haven't played as much as I would have liked with the injuries but I think once I get a full season the sky is the limit," Ballard told The Athletic. "It [the hamstring injury] was a small injury supposed to keep me out for around two weeks but I rushed it back too soon on a couple of occasions and it turned into a more serious one.
