Trai Hume said he was “gutted” for Dan Ballard after seeing his Sunderland team-mate suffer an apparent hamstring injury in Northern Ireland’s 1-0 Nations League win over Georgia.

With the score still 0-0 as the match moved into stoppage time, Ballard was forced to chase back as Georgia counter-attacked and pulled up clutching the back of his thigh, unable to finish the match in Tbilisi.

It was a sad end to Ballard’s first Northern Ireland appearance since November – he was suspended for the fixtures in March and then missed the June window due to an ankle operation in the summer.

Speaking immediately after Friday’s match, Michael O’Neill said it was too soon to know the extent of his latest injury but added “you saw how he pulled up”, and both Northern Ireland and Sunderland will fear losing the 27-year-old for a considerable period.

placeholder image — Daniel Ballard helped off the pitch by medical staff after being substituted due to injury on Friday in Tbilisi against Georgia. (Photo by Levan Verdzeuli/Getty Images)

“He’s always a big miss,” Northern Ireland captain Hume said. “I’m gutted for him to be honest. He can’t catch a break at the minute.

“I think whenever he comes away he’s an important player for us and especially at Sunderland he’s a big, big character in the changing room and he’s so important for us.

“Seeing injuries like that is obviously not good and I’m just sad for him. Hopefully it’s not as bad as we think and I wish him a speedy recovery.”

This latest setback for Ballard was the one major black mark on an otherwise encouraging night for Northern Ireland.

Getting results away from home has been tough for O’Neill’s young side, and the nature of this one felt significant as they took the game to Georgia in their own backyard.

After Pierce Charles saved Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s 65th-minute penalty, Shea Charles snatched a winner deep into stoppage time.

“It’s probably one of the parts of our game that we need to improve on,” Hume said of playing away from Belfast. “We showed both sides where we can dominate the ball, create chances and dig in when we have to when the other team’s on top.

“For a young team, that’s really important and we showed that in abundance.

“Sometimes (playing away) can be a bit intimidating. Sometimes you maybe go away and you’re trying to sit in and keep what you’ve got.

“I think here we’ve come away and we tried to win the game. We didn’t sit in and we weren’t happy to come away with a point. We were trying to win from the first minute to the last and thankfully we did.”