Ibrox club Glasgow Rangers forward Kyle Lafferty did not feature for Northern Ireland during the international break.
Rangers forward Kyle Lafferty
Rangers forward Kyle Lafferty is one of the best players for Northern Ireland, but the Gers star, who moved to Steven Gerrard’s Ibrox club in the summer transfer window, was not part of the national side for their matches during this international break.
Lafferty, who joined Rangers from Heart of Midlothian in the summer transfer window for a fee reported by The Glasgow Evening Times to be worth £500,000, pulled out of Northern Ireland’s matches against Austria and Bosnia and Herzegovina during the international break this month.
The 31-year-old Rangers forward cited an Achilles problem as his reason for not reporting for international duty, with Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill admitting his disappointment at the former Norwich City man’s decision, as quoted in The Daily Mail.
Lafferty has scored four goals in eight appearances in the Scottish Premiership for Rangers so far this season, according to Transfermarkt.com.
Former Tottenham Hotspur and Northern Ireland international striker Gerry Armstrong has given his take on the situation, and has urged Lafferty to wise up and sort things out.
Armstrong wrote about Lafferty in The Belfast Telegraph: “He is our best striker when he is fit and available, but he obviously had his reasons for pulling out of such an important double-header — and at such a late stage.
“I know Kyle — there is something not right there. But Michael could be running out of patience with him.
“You can’t afford to persevere with people who continually let you down. Kyle needs to wise up and stop being stupid. He has to sort his head out.”
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