Kris Lindsay confident Northern Ireland have enough leaders to cope without Simone Magill ahead of World Cup qualifiers

Interim boss Lindsay will take charge of Northern Ireland for the first time on Tuesday night as they face Switzerland away from home, before playing host to Turkiye on Saturday at Mourneview Park (March 7).

The Green and White Army will have to do it without their skipper and striker Simone Magill, who announced in November last year that she was pregnant.

Lindsay has made five changes to the panel which was last selected by Tanya Oxtoby as Laura Rafferty, Ellie Mason, Brenna McPartlan, Lauren Perry and Abbie Smith have all been called-up.

"There's a number of players there who have a lot of experience around international football and once we get into camp, we'll discuss that as a group and as a staff and who will fill that role as captain,” Lindsay said.

"In saying that, you know, there should be a number of captains on the pitch. It is a figurehead and it's an important role but we have a number of experienced players that, regardless if they're captain or not, will help lead the team.

"Any team losing Simone would find it a challenge but, you know, there's a number of exciting young players there with the likes of Kascie Weir, who is coming up through the ranks and obviously has been in previous squads.

“There are a few more established players that are talented and I have no doubts will lead the line really, really well if asked to do so.”

Lindsay has been tasked to lead the two games and stressed that he hasn’t looked beyond that.

He explained: “In international football it's an old cliché but I'm going to throw it out anyway...there are no easy games.

“In my interim role, my full focus is on the first two games and trying to make sure that we have two positive performances and if we get that, that hopefully will lead then to positive results.

"I haven't thought too much beyond that. My full focus has been on Switzerland and Turkey and how we can implement how we want to play against those two oppositions and hopefully come out with two positive performances at the end of it.”