Northern Ireland suffered another blow for their crucial World Cup qualifier against Lithuania on Thursday after Stuart Dallas withdrew from the squad.
The Leeds United utility man pulled out of the Lithuania and Switzerland qualifiers for personal reasons.
Northern Ireland are already without injured key defender Jonny Evans while his brother Corry and striker Josh Magennis are also out due to knocks.
Baraclough said defender Craig Cathcart should be fit to play.
The Watford centre-half had been an injury concern after picking up a knock at the weekend but he trained on Tuesday and was set to train on Wednesday evening.
“Craig is a battler, he will try and play through anything. He is fine, he just needed a couple of days off and should be ok.”
Hearts striker Liam Boyce is missing for family reasons, while Millwall midfielder George Saville is suspended for the Lithuania match, but will be available again to face Switzerland in the second game of the World Cup qualifier double-header six days later.
Asked further about the reasons for Dallas’ withdrawal, the former NI Under-21 boss said he was not at liberty to elaborate but that he did not travel with the squad due to personal reasons that came to light in the last 24 hours.
“We all know how good a player Stuart Dallas is but we have also got players who are desperate for a chance to play,” Baraclough said.
“As soon as they came in, from the first meeting I said ‘make sure you are ready to play, don’t come in here thinking you’re going to be a bit-part player’.
“So everyone in the squad knows they have a chance of playing and that is the beauty of having everyone in the squad near enough playing regular football at the minute.
“It makes it more competitive and we know that if we call on anyone then they are ready to go. And it is their chance, if someone comes out of the team for whatever reason, it is somebody else’s chance to go in.”
‘We deal with it as a group’
Despite the injury setbacks ahead of the Lithuania match, combined with the challenging circumstances which have surrounded his first year in charge, the ever-upbeat Baraclough was philosophical about the situation.
“It just makes it more exciting,” he said, tongue-in-cheek.
“You have to be prepared for all eventualities. I have been coaching and managing in the game for long enough now to know that things don’t go your way all the time.
“The more experience you have, the easier it gets to deal with things. There is still stuff being thrown at us but we will deal with it as a group together.
“It is not just on my shoulders, we work through these things together and that is players, coaches and backroom staff. That is why, when you do get a victory, it means something to everybody.”
