Ireland must plan for their vital World Cup qualifier in Budapest without striker Evan Ferguson.
The Roma man was a serious doubt ahead of this international window, and while he was ruled out against Portugal, hope remained that the 21-year-old would be available to travel for the final Hungary game.
Ferguson failed to prove his fitness and has remained in Rome to work on his rehabilitation, while Ireland arrived to Budapest for Sunday's must-win clash.
"Everyone is fit apart from him [Evan Ferguson]," said Hallgrimsson. "We called him yesterday or he did a session yesterday, and he hasn't kicked the ball still."
The manager was full of praise for his injured forward, who he felt put the team first and did not try to mask his fitness status to attempt to be involved in the big game.
"We talked to him and he feels that he would not be able to contribute much," said Hallgrimsson.
"I give a big-up to him, thinking about the team first. Obviously, every player would like to come, especially after the game in Dublin and join, but he thinks he would not contribute enough to be in the squad.
"So we leave him out and he just continues with Roma, with his rehabilitation."
Heimir Hallgrímsson admits Evan Ferguson still hasn't kicked a ball and says he’s 'tempted’ to stick with the same XI that stunned Portugal 2-0 on Thursday.
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 15, 2025
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Looking ahead to the game, Hallgrimsson admitted that he was tempted to go with the same starting XI following the side’s fantastic victory over Portugal in Dublin on Thursday night.
However, the manager admitted that he would have to assess the entire squad to gauge where energy levels were at following such an intense 90 minutes against the world’s fifth-ranked side.
And Hallgrimsson said he would make the call following the squad’s training session at the Puskas Arena, which followed the press conference.
"I'm tempted to play the same team, yeah. I'm tempted. Will I do it? I don't know," said Hallgrimsson.
"No, we will see in training, and we are in regular talks with the players who play the majority of the game.
"So we know exactly where they are, both mentally and physically. But there's a training now in a few bits and that will be the last check."
As for the opposition, Hallgrimsson admitted that he was unsure how Hungary would approach the game, as they only need a draw to progress.
But the manager stressed that all his focus was on his own team and the fact that destiny is in their own hands going into Sunday’s encounter.
"I don't know to be honest, I don't know how they see this game or see the opponent. We don't care, we're trying to focus on us. That's a big task," he said.
"First of all, focusing after a good game, building on that one, just realising what it was that created that win and trying to reproduce that.
"[We need to] stop looking at or talking about what happened two days ago. To focus on the next task is now the most important thing.
"We said we would always take it if we go to the final match and we still have a chance and everything is in our hands. We grab it. We love the fact that it's in our hands now."
Goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher joined the manager for the pre-match press conference and said that he felt there was pressure on both sides going into such a vital fixture.
"Yeah, potentially," he said, when asked was there more pressure on Hungary, being the home side.
"I think it's been quite a while for them as well since they've last qualified for a World Cup, so obviously, there's going to be a lot of pressure on them.
"Their home fans are going to come to this game expecting them to go through.
"But we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as well, we really rate ourselves as a team and put pressure on ourselves to qualify for a major tournament.
"So I think there's going to be pressure on both teams. It's a big game."
'People that are vacuums and people that are batteries'.
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 15, 2025
Heimir Hallgrimsson hails Séamus Coleman as the ultimate battery he's ever worked with. 🔋
📺 Watch Hungary v Republic of Ireland in World Cup qualifying on Sunday from 1.00pm on @rte2 and @rteplayer pic.twitter.com/48dgjvRDpT
And while the squad and management are fully focused on the task at hand, Kelleher did have a moment to reflect on Thursday’s performance, and admitted that the squad had felt that a big victory was coming.
"Yeah, it was obviously a big occasion for us as a team. I think we were due a big victory like that for a while now," he said.
"All that does now is set it up for us on Sunday. We enjoyed the victory obviously, but I think pretty soon after the game attention turned towards this game and how important this is, so all that matters now is Sunday.
"It all came together on Thursday night and it's going to give us a lot of confidence now for Sunday.
"When you get a big win like that, it gives everyone a big boost and fills the whole team with a lot of confidence.
"I think we're going to go into Sunday now ready and prepared."
Watch Hungary v Republic of Ireland in World Cup qualifying on Sunday from 1.00pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1.
