Northern Ireland women: Andy Waterworth will manage side for Wales game
- Published
Former Linfield striker Waterworth will have Aaron Hughes on his coaching team for the Wales match
Andy Waterworth, the Irish FA's head of elite player development, will manage Northern Ireland women in their upcoming friendly with Wales next month.
IFA technical director and newly appointed assistant coach to the men's senior team, Aaron Hughes, will also be part of the coaching team.
Northern Ireland have been without a manager since parting ways with Kenny Shiels in February.
They face Wales in Cardiff on 7 April.
It is understood that neither Waterworth or Hughes are in contention for the job full-time and this is an interim appointment.
Northern Ireland have not been in action since November, when the beat Italy 1-0 in a friendly which proved to be Shiels' last game in charge.
The Irish FA's director of women's football Angela Platt last week told BBC Sport it would be "unrealistic" to expect a new manager to be appointed in time for the Wales game, but that the association had "interim plans in place to make sure that we are covered for the senior women's squad".
Waterworth scored over 200 goals in the Irish League during spells with Glentoran, Linfield and Glenavon and joined the Irish FA in 2021 having completed his Uefa pro license a year earlier.
Hughes, who won 112 caps for his country, retired in 2019 and has also been with the IFA since 2021, joining as elite football development consultant before being appointed as the association's first technical director in November.
Former Northern Ireland goalkeeper Roy Carroll will take up a goalkeeping coach role under Waterworth.
As well as the ongoing search for a manager for the senior squad, Platt explained that the IFA are currently conducting a recruitment process for an Under-16s Academy manager and for an Under-19s/17s boss, two roles which were both previously carried out by Alfie Wylie.
Current Northern Ireland defender Julie Nelson is managing the Under-17s on an eight-week interim basis as they prepare for Euro qualifiers against Turkey and Armenia later this month.