Michael O’Neil is hoping Kyle Lafferty can move away from Carrow Road for more first team action.
Lafferty has been a major force in O’Neil’s side, with the striker notching 7 goals as Northern Ireland qualified for their first major tournament in over 30 years.
However, Lafferty has hardly made the same impact at club level, with the 28-year-old having very little playing time under boss Alex Neil. He has failed to start a league game this term and has only seen action from the bench against Leicester and West Brom in the cup, where he scored only his second goal for the club.
O’Neil said he noticed the lack of match sharpness in Lafferty, who only managed 54 minutes against Latvia, with a stomach bug also limiting his minutes. Lafferty has also been linked with a move to Leeds United on loan, but O’Neil denied any involvement in trying to force a move.
I’ve had absolutely no involvement in that at all, but the most important thing for me is that Kyle gets playing.
It’s a hard situation. It’s November now and he hasn’t started a game for his club. That’s not an easy situation to deal with.
I thought he did extremely well given the circumstances. But there’s no secret and he knows it himself, to be at his best he needs to be playing.
That applies to any player and I know that personally. There were times I played internationally when I wasn’t playing for my club and it’s a very difficult situation for a player to find themselves in.
