Dan Ballard on his injury struggle at Sunderland

Dan Ballard on his injury struggle at Sunderland - and insists 'the sky is the limit'

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.

"It's a lesson learned as I had never had a hammy injury before. It was in a niggly area so I was rushing back for the play-offs but when I was out running I was pushing it too soon and so it set me back.

"I'd probably have pushed it again for the play-offs, which is stupid as I wasn't ready, but I felt the pressure to be there."

With Ballard injured, Aji Alese also sidelined with a thigh problem, and Danny Batth picking up a knee injury, Sunderland ended the season without any fit centre-backs. That meant the versatile Luke O'Nien, along with full-backs Trai Hume and Lynden Gooch had to line up as a back three, and their lack of height and physicality was exposed in the play-off semi-final second leg as Luton Town overcame a 2-1 first leg deficit to end up 3-2 winners on aggregate.

Ballard said: "It was tough to watch when you know you could affect the game, especially against Luton who bombarded us with long balls. In the [League] game against them a month before, me and Danny [Batth] had a good battle with their two strikers and we felt we did really well against them.

"The boys stepped in for us but they naturally don't have the same physicality and Luton is the one team you probably need that against."

Dan Ballard on his injury struggle at Sunderland - and insists 'the sky is the limit'

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