Kyle Lafferty’s Irish Football Association (IFA) snub proves one thing.
Just how much playing for Rangers means to the striker. This wasn’t about not getting picked. This wasn’t about a personal fall out. To Lafferty this was and is about getting fit and making a difference to Rangers. Ironically, he won’t be able to do that on Sunday at all.
After rejoining the club he spoke openly about making amends. Lafferty was transparent about bad advice he’d been given in the wake of 2012. He wants make those amends to the club after years spent thinking he’d never get the chance to.
Whether the Achilles injury is bad enough to warrant a pull out isn’t relevant. Lafferty just wants to focus on Rangers. But why can’t he focus on Northern Ireland too?
Circumstances have went against Lafferty
One of the main issues with Lafferty’s snub is the late nature of it. The lanky striker called up Michael O’Neill at the 11th hour to pull out. O’Neill, like an angry parent, also said he was “disappointed” in the striker.
It also doesn’t help that Northern Ireland really needed results against Austria and Bosnia in the Nations League. They were beaten – and failed to score – in both matches.
Lafferty is a vital part of how they play. Behind Steven Davis, he’s arguably their best player. He’s been capped almost 70 times. He was the top scorer in European Championship Qualifying.
You get the picture. He was sorely missed. But he probably knew he would be. But no one could’ve seen the IFAs reaction coming.
IFA reaction unexpected
Kyle Lafferty loves playing for his country. There’s no doubt about that at all. He’ll also definitely play for Northern Ireland again. The decision to revoke his right to play on Sunday was a power play. Northern Ireland wanted to show Kyle Lafferty who was boss.
But is it over the top? Lafferty has been pivotal to Northern Ireland. The Nation’s League also isn’t final Championship qualifying. It’s also only an outside chance of qualification. He’s obviously weighed this up in his mind. If the games were that important he’d be there. If he was fully fit and had no issues getting fitter, he’d also be there.
But there might’ve been more understanding had it been better presented and announced at a better time.
That said, Laff will have to take this on the chin. He can’t let it distract him from the reasons why he ducked out of the squad in the first place.
For this season at least, his focus is and will be Glasgow Rangers.
But how will the club respond?
