Daniel Ballard takes captain's armband for Northern Ireland as Jonny Evans heads home

Daniel Ballard will lead Northern Ireland out against Andorra this evening after Jonny Evans returned to the UK following Saturday's defeat to Spain. Michael O'Neill confirmed Evans, who had some injury niggles during the regular season, did not travel back to Murcia with the rest of the squad yesterday as he felt it was unrealistic to ask the Manchester United defender to play again after a tough 90 minutes in Mallorca.

Evans’ departure means his defensive partner Ballard will take the armband. The Sunderland man will lead Northern Ireland out for the first time at the Estadio Nueva Condomina.

O'Neill is hoping for an easier night for his charges against an Andorran side ranked 164th in the world. But he has also challenged his players to take the game to their opponents.

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“This game is different because we know there is an expectation there obviously," he said. "We have to go in and play with confidence. We have to play quickly. We don’t want the game to be slow and pedestrian. We can make it a frustrating night for ourselves but it’s important that we don’t do that.

"People think we set up sometimes not to have possession but when you play the likes of Spain they just do not give the ball to you. It would be lovely to have 60% possession against Spain but we know that’s not going to be the case."

Goalkeeper Conor Hazard is the only fitness doubt as he recovers from a leg infection. O'Neill is expected to use his squad as they look to get back to winning ways again.

He added: “We have got 22 outfield players in the squad. Ideally we would like to try to get everyone game time but that might not be possible on this trip, but we do want to use the squad as much as possible. The important thing is the performance and the result.”

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