Daniel Ballard is yet to make his competitive first-team debut for Arsenal but he is now a full international after featuring for Northern Ireland against Romania last night.
The centre-back was largely composed and produced an impressive display which was all the more commendable given that he has barely played in the past year due to injury.
Ballard will hope to be involved again when Northern Ireland face Norway on Monday and then attention will turn back to his situation at club level.
Given that Arsenal have so many centre-backs at present Ballard could be heading out on loan again, and if that is the case he will hope for better fortune than last season when his spell with Swindon Town ended early due to injury.
Ballard was involved for the first-team in the friendly against MK Dons recently and will still harbour hopes of succeeding at Arsenal despite it not being a straightforward task.
After the struggles that he endured things are finally starting to look up for Ballard and he will now look to push on further and enjoy a productive campaign.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
What was the score?
Ask Mr. Google ?
1-1. Northern Ireland played with 10 men for most of the game.
How old is he because arsenal can’t keep buying when we have good ones in the academy
Not sure whether he’ll make it at Arsenal but we still have far too many centre backs, many of whom are pretty average, and they are blocking – or at least considerably slowing – the progress of youngsters trying to come through. A few are reported to be near(ish) to being offloaded, but we do need to trim the numbers soon.
Defence is one position our academy don’t really produce. But this few seasons we have seen a few talented defenders coming through. There’s a lot of hope and faith to play for the first team because most of the senior defenders won’t be around in 2-3 season and will give chances for him and players like Mavropanos, McGuinness and Medley. Sokratis is leaving this window, Luiz is out of contract next season, Chambers looks like he could go, Mustafi could also be gone by next season if he don’t go now. Holding seem to be the only one to stick… Read more »
How mad is it that he is a full international but not made his proper first team debut!?