Northern Ireland and Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Pierce Charles
Northern Ireland and Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Pierce Charles has undergone shoulder surgery, with fears mounting he may miss the entire World Cup qualifying campaign.
The shoulder injury has already ruled Charles out of this month’s double away trip to Luxembourg and Germany, but it’s hoped that he will return for October’s Windsor Park double-header against Slovakia and Germany.
The campaign concludes in November with a trip to Slovakia and a home game against Luxembourg.
Northern Ireland goalkeeper Pierce Charles will miss the games against Luxembourg and Germany
There are fears, however, that Charles’ injury may be worse than first thought.
Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen said: “He will have surgery on Friday and then after this we will know more about the time and how long he will be out for.
“I hope for the best, but the specialist has said that he needs to come in before we can see exactly how long things are.
£It’s because some things you can scan and some things you can’t scan. Let’s see what they are saying and we can speak about this later.”
For next month’s trip to Luxembourg and Germany, Michael O’Neill will pick between Blackpool’s Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Bristol Rovers goalkeeper Luke Southwood and Waterford’s Stephen McMullan, with the experienced Peacock-Farrell the most likely to get the nod.
Charles, 20, has already earned eight caps for Northern Ireland.