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Northern Ireland had a stoppage-time equaliser ruled out by VAR as a battling display went unrewarded in a 1-0 Euro 2024 qualifying loss to Denmark. Jonas Wind’s goal early in the second half made the difference in Copenhagen as debutant Callum Marshall saw a dream goal ruled out for offside after a review which took almost five minutes. The West Ham youngster flicked the ball in after Jonny Evans headed on a free-kick, but there was despair when referee Daniel Stefanski eventually signalled for offside after his colleague Tomasz Kwiatkowski took an age to review the footage. Michael O’Neill’s men defended doggedly away to the top seeds in Group H, but a mistake just two minutes after the break proved decisive as Denmark bounced back from March’s shock defeat to Kazakhstan and put the pressure on Northern Ireland to deliver when the Kazakhs visit Windsor Park on Monday. Wind pounced when Ciaron Brown got it all wrong trying to deal with Joakim Maehle’s short cross in from the left, slamming the ball home from close range. But O’Neill will take encouragement from how a youthful line-up dealt with the hardest fixture in Group H. Before kick-off came news that Craig Cathcart had suffered a back injury, taking the number of first-team regulars missing to 10, a figure threatening to derail this qualifying campaign even before the halfway stage. Trai Hume made his first start at left wing-back, with Evans between Brown and Paddy McNair at the back. Also making his first start was Isaac Price, one of three teenagers in the side along with Conor Bradley and Shea Charles. O’Neill was well aware of what he was asking of such inexperienced players in the raucous atmosphere of the Parken Stadium, and watched on as they soaked up huge amounts of pressure before the break as Denmark grew frustrated. Andreas Skov Olsen’s early cross was slightly behind Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who twisted acrobatically to make contact but could not find the target. Christian Eriksen sent a free-kick from long range wide, while the clearest chance came to Crystal Palace defender Joachim Andersen just before the half hour as space opened up in front of him, but his powerful shot was straight at Bailey Peacock-Farrell. Shayne Lavery, selected ahead of Dion Charles in attack, worked tirelessly to offer an outlet as he and the slender figure of Price, asked to play in an advanced role, faced up to Denmark’s imposing back three of Simon Kjaer, Andreas Christensen and Andersen. It was Lavery who had Northern Ireland’s only first-half opportunity when Price laid the ball off on the edge of the area. Lavery looked up to see three defenders closing in, but got off a deflected strike which Kasper Schmeichel was able to gather. But after all that hard work in the first half, Denmark needed only two minutes of the second to find the breakthrough thanks to a mistake at the back. Northern Ireland did not recover their shape after Bradley lost the ball, and when Brown stumbled to the floor, Wind accepted the gift. A set-piece offered Northern Ireland an opportunity but Price and Lavery got their wires crossed trying to play it short and Denmark broke, with Peacock-Farrell saving smartly from the in-demand Rasmus Hojlund, scorer of five goals in the first two qualifiers. Quick distribution from Peacock-Farrell set Price free down the right as the hour mark approached, but with no support the teenager had to test Schmeichel from a tight angle, forcing a corner. It looked as though there was a late twist when Marshall, on for Ali McCann with five minutes left, turned the ball home from close range, but VAR would kill the celebrations. Just three games into the qualifying campaign, it feels as though Northern Ireland must now deliver a result at home on Monday to keep themselves in the mix. Read More Trent Alexander-Arnold experiment means England may have found their ‘quarterback’ John Greig thanks Rangers after becoming CBE Wales suffer humiliating defeat to damage Euro 2024 qualification hopes Trent Alexander-Arnold experiment means England may have found their ‘quarterback’ John Greig thanks Rangers after becoming CBE Wales suffer humiliating defeat to damage Euro 2024 qualification hopes

Tom Lockyer has reflected on his day of “mixed emotions” after being given the all clear following his heart scare during Luton’s Sky Bet Championship play-off final win over Coventry last month. The 28-year-old defender fell to the floor early in the game and was subsequently taken to the Cleveland Clinic in London where he underwent an operation. Lockyer is now planning a holiday before preparing for the Hatters’ new Premier League campaign having been assured by medical staff that there is no reason why he should suffer a repeat of the problem. “I had an atrial fibrillation, which is basically the top part of my heart was beating four times faster than it should have been,” Lockyer told his club’s official website. “There’s not really any reason to say why that happened, but I’ve had the operation to fix it and it shouldn’t happen again. “I’ve been given the all clear, it is what it is and I just want to draw a line under it now and move on.” Lockyer said he had few recollections of the incident, other than an over-riding emotion of sadness when he realised he would be unable to play any further part in the Wembley clash. “It was a day of mixed emotions,” added Lockyer. “It was crazy. All week I’d been visualising walking up those steps to that trophy and to end it in a hospital bed is not quite what I had in mind. “I remember running backwards, and then I went really light-headed and my legs went really weak straight away. I remember stumbling back and then all I remember was (physio) Chris Phillips over the top of me, and he was saying, ‘Locks, you’re coming off’. “I’m just really thankful that the lads were able to get the job done and we were able to complete our goal of getting promoted. “It made those five days in hospital after a lot easier. I think if we had lost, those five days would have been horrendous, but they made it a lot smoother for me.”

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Lucy Charles-Barclay has provided an insight into her “pretty gruelling” training routine ahead of competing at the Ironman World Championship set to take place today (October 14) in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The best female triathletes (both professional and age group) from around the world will test their strength and resilience on the 140.6-mile triathlon course - a 2.4-mile ocean swim in Kailua Bay, a 112-mile bicycle race along the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway, ending with a 26.2-mile run to the Kaliua-Kona finish line. This year’s event marks the first-ever female-only race. After coming second in last year’s race, Charles-Barclay is hoping to do one better and get on the top step of the podium this time round. The 30-year-old British triathlete spoke to Indy100 last week on how she has prepared for the race, the highlights and challenges of her career so far. “I've been here for just over a week. Now kind of the main focus of my training the last week has just been acclimatised in because it's very hot and humid here,” she said, with the average air temperature at a sweltering 27° C. “The main thing is kind of getting the body used to that and then doing my final big sessions before I start to ease off next week. Nearly all of the hard work is done now.” Preparing for this kind of climate is “quite brutal” for Charles-Barclay who has been training for the hot Hawaii weather which includes doing “a lot” of indoor training with heaters, going in the sauna and having hot baths “as much as possible” to get used to the higher temperatures. “That seems to have paid off because it doesn't feel too bad. I mean, it is definitely hot here but I seem to be able to kind of put down some good performances in the training session so far. “So hopefully I'll be able to do that in the race as well,” Charles-Barclay added. Despite this intense heat training, races in warmer countries are the Brit’s preference. “I've raced all over the world but even though I'm from the UK, I definitely prefer hot races. I'm not someone who enjoys being cold so I normally pick races that are in hotter climates,” she explained. For Charles-Barclay, the average workout time to train for this kind of endurance in her three disciplines – swimming, cycling and running – is between three to six hours per day. To further prepare her body to endure the hardest moments of her races, the triathlete trains in a ‘pain cave’ at her husband’s parent’s house that was built by her father-in-law who used to be a professional boxer. Inside the aptly named ‘pain cave’ includes a boxing ring in the middle, a Woodway treadmill (self-powered treadmill, that burns 30% more calories), a Lever Movement anti-gravity running system, a ‘swim bench,’ and “all of the strength equipment.” Also, there is an Endless pool which is “like a treadmill for swimming and you can swim on the spot,” as well as indoor bikes from Oahu and the newly purchased Kickr Move “so it feels more like you're riding outside even [when] indoors.” “Basically, you could do a full triathlon indoors in there and we have done that regularly. But yeah, a lot of pain, sweat and tears goes on in there for sure,” she said. While breaking a sweat in the ‘pain cave’, there is a certain energy drink that helps “draw upon that caffeine” and “get through those really tough workouts that I'm doing regularly.” “It's definitely where Red Bull actually helps quite a lot because when you put three sessions a day, you definitely start to flag at some point.” Music also makes training “so much easier,” with the likes of Imagine Dragons, Eminem, NF as some of her favourite artists listen to, as well as “anything that just is a bit upbeat to get me going,” so of course, some Britney Spears tunes made it to her workout playlist. Out of her three disciplines, swimming is Charles-Barclay’s strength as she started as an elite-level swimmer trying to make the 2012 Olympic Games in the 1500 metres and she also competed in 5k and 10k open water swimming races before switching in 2013 to train as a triathlete. In 2014, she and her husband Reece Barclay completed their first Ironman and were “completely hooked.” “My now-husband and I decided to sign up for an Ironman and kind of have it as this challenge to try and achieve it which at the time, we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into, but we actually really enjoyed the process.” After meeting as swimmers, Reece “naturally became the coach” that set out training when they both moved into competing in triathlons. Now, Charles-Barclay has Reece along with another coach to assist with her training. “Reece is the one that's there kind of every single day seeing what I'm doing adapting my training plan if we need to. He also was a pro triathlete himself and is now gone full-time assisting and helping me. “I probably definitely wouldn't do it without him. He makes it a lot easier.” The couple both qualified for the World Championships in 2015 as amateur athletes and in 2016, Charles-Barclay got her pro license. She then signed with Red Bull during this time in a partnership that has been “invaluable” to her career. “I guess they kind of took a leap of faith with me and their partnership has been huge to my performance over the years,” she explained. “Starting back in 2017, but kind of over the years, helping me overcome injuries that I've had, taking me out to Austria where they had the Performance Centre there and really diving into everything that it is to be an elite level athlete - whether that be psychology, physiology - just looking at every aspect as an athlete so that I can improve and be better." After almost a decade since her first Ironman, one of Charles-Barclay’s highlights was when she won the Half Ironman World Championships in 2021. “I won it in the best way that I could win it. I was the fastest across every discipline in the race and actually ended up winning by eight minutes,” she recalled. “So it's gonna be pretty hard to top that.” Remaining resilient in the face of injury is also a key quality for a sportswoman like Charles-Barclay to have. This year, she had a freak accident during Ironman 70.3 Kraichgau in Germany, where she broke her foot. “I didn't know that it broke. I just continued racing on it,” she said and an X-ray then showed she had completely broken through the metatarsal during the race. “We're still not really sure where it happened, which I think is one of the hardest things as an athlete, we kind of always look into everything can be sure why something happened so you can stop it [from] happening again.” While at the start of last year, a stress fracture in her femoral neck (a broken hip) impacted her 2022 season. “That was a long time out of racing and out of training. As an athlete, sitting still is our worst nightmare,” she admitted. Another difficulty is coming back from an injury and “trusting your body again” so as not to question, “Is it going to break on [me] again?” During those difficult times, Charles-Barclay received an influx of support from her social media followers (444,000 on Instagram, 90,000 on YouTube), who keep up with her performances as she documents her journey to inspire people to try out the sport for themselves. “One of the biggest things that I do is try and share my journey as much as possible online,” she said. “So via my YouTube channel or just on my social media trying to inspire other people to get involved in the sport as much as possible, particularly young women and girls to try and get them into the sport is kind of a really big thing that I try and push whilst I'm doing this.” The athlete added: “I get a lot of messages a lot of the time saying that. I've inspired them to maybe do their first-ever triathlon that might not be a full Ironman, but even just getting into a sprint distance triathlon. “I think it's an amazing sport to be part of. So the more people I can inspire to do that the better.” Lucy’s top tips on training for an Ironman Give yourself enough time “I think the minimum amount of time would be about six months to training for an Ironman just to complete it. So give yourself enough time to find a workout how long you need to train and how much time you need to dedicate to it.” Have a clear plan and get a coach “Whether you're working full time you might have a family it's quite hard to work around that so really have like a clear plan. And one of the best things you can do is definitely get a coach to help you along the way.” Take on the challenge with a friend "Try and convince some of your friends to do it with you because it can be quite a lonely sport. But if you've got other people to train with and make it more fun, I think that makes it a lot easier." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.