In their latest Nations League fixture Northern Ireland will take on Belarus in Hungary on Saturday, the neutral venue the result of Uefa restrictions on the hosts. Fifty years ago, it was Northern Ireland playing in homes away from home with no international football staged in Belfast between October 1971 and April 1975. BBC Sport NI looks back on the side’s nomadic years.

Sammy McIlroy still vividly remembers what it was like to see George Best in the flesh for the first time.

While the two would later become Manchester United and Northern Ireland team-mates, for a 13-year-old to watch the soon-to-be Ballon d’Or winner against Scotland at Windsor Park in October 1967 was “absolutely mesmerising”.

“To this day I can still see things George did with the ball,” remembers the midfielder who went on to win 88 Northern Ireland caps before managing his country.

“I’ll never forget it. The crowd, the atmosphere, it was electric.

“I’d never seen anything like that, a player with the ball tied to his boots. It just made me want to go back home and get the ball out on the street.”

It would be a rare privilege soon denied to the people of Northern Ireland.

By the time of McIlroy’s own international debut against Spain in a Euro ’72 qualifier just five years later, Northern Ireland were the “home” team in a game staged at Hull City’s Boothferry Park, an arrangement enabled by Terry Neill being the player-manager of both sides.

The early 1970s provided the bloodiest years of the Troubles, the name given colloquially to the decades-long sectarian conflict in the country and, after a 1-1 draw against the USSR in October 1971, Northern Ireland was deemed unsafe to host international football.

“To be honest, I was devastated it wasn’t in Belfast,” says McIlroy of the 1-1 draw with Spain, the first of 18 consecutive fixtures played outside of Northern Ireland.

“I was delighted to play, to make my debut for Northern Ireland, it just took the gloss off it that it wasn’t in Belfast in front of my home fans. That was very, very sad.”

During the following years Northern Ireland would play in front of a small mix of expats and curious locals, using Goodison Park, Highfield Road, Hillsborough and Craven Cottage just to fulfil their World Cup ’74 qualifying fixtures, as well as those in the British Home Nations Championship.

Goalkeeper Angus Gunn is injured.

So are right-backs Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson. And three starting central defenders in the shape of Jack Hendry, Scott McKenna and Kieran Tierney.

Second-choice left-back Greg Taylor is hobbled too.

Lewis Ferguson, John McGinn and Stuart Armstrong will be at home instead of in the Scotland midfield.

And strikers Tommy Conway and Lawrence Shankland are absent too.

It leaves the squad looking alarmingly undermanned, but can you eke a coherent XI out of the players who are left behind?

Getty Images

Getty Images

Passionate time

LAS VEGAS – Islam Dulatov had an easy career posing for high fashion magazines, but the modeling life didn’t bring him the same joy as fighting inside a cage.

Dulatov (11-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) is one of the latest UFC newcomers after impressing UFC CEO Dana White and the matchmakers with a spectacular first-round finish at Dana White’s Contender Series 75. Now, the former model is a UFC fighter.

From modeling for Versace, Hugo Boss, and many others, Dulatov has now fully traded in his fancy clothes for a Venum fight kit, and it’s precisely where he wants to be.

“(I worked for) every brand which is like a big name,” Dulatov said at a post-fight news conference when asked about his modeling career. “I did a lot of fashion weeks and all that stuff, but to be honest, I prefer fighting more than modeling.”

Even as an up-and-comer on the regional scene, Dulatov passed up bigger paychecks to be in front of the camera to fight, which he admits was not the best financial decision at the time.

“I canceled a lot of shootings when I was younger,” Dulatov said. “We had some problems with money and everything. This time, modeling was really helping me with my situation. I remember when I canceled a shooting for $5,000. At this time, that was a lot of money for me.

“The fight, which was the same day, was for like 200 euros or something like that. … At the end of the moment, the fight was canceled too because my opponent had an injury. I had these situations like 10 times, with even more money and everything. But to be honest, I love to be a fighter and that’s what I do.”

Being a fighter and a model comes with the obvious risk of messing up the money-maker. Dulatov, 26, is a fast finisher who has ended 10 of his 11 pro fights in the first round. He only recalled one particular instance where he showed up to a shoot after a fight with a bruised eye.

“I had a shooting for GQ, and when I go to the shoot casting, they go, ‘What is this? Blue eye?’” Dulatov said. “I go, ‘Yeah.’ They say, ‘Oh, it’s cool. It’s more authentic. It shows what you really are.’ Because in the model business, the people already all know me, they know that I do fighting.

“My agency, at the beginning, they was hating it, but with time they saw, ‘OK, this guy will never stop fighting, so we have to accept it.’”

The Chechnya-born fighter has put modeling on the back burner for now. He will still perform in front of the camera, but as a new UFC welterweight with vicious finishing skills.

Cain Velasquez would have liked his chances vs. both Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall.

Velasquez was widely regarded as the best heavyweight when he won the UFC title twice and tore through the majority of the top contenders. However, injuries helped put a close to Velasquez’s MMA career, and many wondered what might have been if he was able to remain healthy. He retired in late 2019.

Velasquez (14-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) was asked how a prime version of himself would have matched up against heavyweight champion Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC), and Velasquez admits even the best version of him wouldn’t have ran through someone like “Bones.”

“Jon Jones, prime Cain – OK, that would be a tough fight, man. Always, that would’ve been tough,” Velasquez said on the “Basement Talk” podcast. “You know, with that dude, he is (the boogeyman). But I think that would’ve been the best matchup because I think I would’ve had something for him. I could go there where he would’ve wanted to go.”

Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) is the interim heavyweight champion, and his lone octagon loss came in a 15-second TKO loss due to injury against Curtis Blaydes. He was able to avenge that loss in his most recent outing when he stopped Blaydes by first-round TKO to retain his interim title at UFC 304 in July.

Although Aspinall’s grappling is highly touted, Velasquez is confident he would have been able to get him to the ground.

“Aspinall, as well, especially with the wrestling, I just know when I get onto somebody’s legs I’m taking him down,” Velasquez said. “(He’s) very dangerous with his hands, has a lot of power. Wat he does, he kind of lunges forward and punches – takes a big step and lunges forward, closes that distance really well. But when somebody is wrestling, you’re going to be coming into my takedowns.”

Jones defends his title vs. former champion Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in the UFC 309 main event Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.