Keith Gillespie has become the second player to withdraw from Northern Ireland's squad for Saturday's opening World Cup qualifier against Malta.

The Blackburn winger has had to pull out of the Windsor Park clash with an ankle injury and joins Neil Lennon on the sidelines. Northern Ireland boss Sammy McIlroy will now decide overnight whether to call up a replacement from the under-21 squad or his stand-by list, or soldier on with his remaining players.

McIlroy said: "Keith Gillespie is out. He picked up an ankle injury playing against Rochdale last week and he would not be ready in time. Blackburn's doctor rang with the news, while Keith also rang me.

"With Neil and Keith out, my squad is down to 18 and I'll be sitting down with my assistant Jimmy Harvey to decide what we do now. We have some people in the under-21 squad who have been with us before, while we've also got Danny Sonner who we can call up from the stand-by list.

"We must now decide: Do we bring someone in or do we stick with the 18 for the moment and hope no one else gets injured in training?"

Lennon flew into Belfast today to have his groin injury checked by the Northern Ireland team doctor, who confirmed that he would not be fit to face Malta.