Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill has opted to leave striker Kyle Lafferty out of his starting XI as the home nation prepares to face Ukraine at Euro 2016.

Manchester United's Paddy McNair, who played in midfield against Poland in NI's Group C opening defeat, is another of five players to drop out of the side, while there is a surprise inclusion in the shape of 36-year-old Aaron Hughes at right-back.

Jamie Ward, Conor Washington and Stuart Dallas have been picked to operate in a front three for the Green and Whites, who will be the first team knocked out of the European Championships should they lose today and Germany avoid defeat against Poland this evening.

Ukraine boss Mykhaylo Fomenko, meanwhile, has made just the one alteration to the side that lost out to Germany, and it comes in attack with Yevhen Seleznyov replacing Roman Zozulya.

The Yellow-Blues are also in danger of being eliminated after just two games if they fail to get a result against NI, as they were beaten by world champions Germany in their opening game of the tournament.

Ukraine: Pyatov, Fedetskiy, Rakitskiy, Shevchuk, Khacheridi, Stepanenko, Sydorchuk, Yarmolenko, Kovalenko, Konoplyanka, Seleznyov

Northern Ireland: McGovern; Hughes, Cathcart, McAuley, J.Evans; C.Evans, Davis, Norwood; Ward, Washington, Dallas

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Written by
Giuseppe Labellarte