But he was in the starting eleven tonight for the Republic of Ireland as they took a big step towards qualification for the Euro Finals in France next summer.
They played the first leg of their play-off tie against Bosnia & Herzegovina in Zenica and came away with a 1-1 draw to take into the second leg in Dublin in four days time. It might have been better too. Robbie Brady gave them the lead on 82 minutes but it was a lead they were only able to keep for three minutes before Edin Dzeko equalised, although it was difficult to see exactly what was happening at times as the fog descended in the second half.
By then Ward had departed; he played the first 67 minutes in what was his 31st appearance at full international level before Martin O'Neill replaced him with Stoke's Marc Wilson.
Three former Burnley players have also won caps tonight, all involved in friendlies with their places in the finals assured.
Both Chris Baird and Kyle Lafferty were in the Northern Ireland side that beat Latvia 1-0 at Windsor Park. Baird played the full game while Lafferty was substituted and replaced by Josh Magennis on 54 minutes, less than a minute before Steven Davis scored the only goal.
Meanwhile, over in Alicante, Gary Cahill played the last few minutes of England's 2-0 defeat against Spain, coming on for Chris Smalling. Tom Heaton was again an unused substitute.
All these caps have now been added to the INTERNATIONALS feature on Clarets Mad.