FITNESS won’t be an issue according to Northern Ireland frontman Kyle Lafferty, despite not having kicked a ball yet this season.
The Norwich City striker had been hoping to make an impact in the Barclays Premier League for Alex Neil’s men having returned from a loan spell with Turkish side Caykur Rizespor, but a knee injury picked up in pre-season ruled him out of action for five weeks. Despite that, the North’s top scorer in this campaign, feels ready to lead the line once again against the Faroe Islands in Torshavn on Friday.
“I think I’m probably fitter and sharper going into these games than I was going into the Romania game. I worked hard on the bike and on the pitch," said the Fermanagh man.
“Getting the injury when I did was disappointing, but it’s just one of those things. I had to pick my head up, I’ve done that and I’m looking forward to the next two games.
“Obviously, game time is the most important thing. I believe the adrenaline of these next two games will get me through it. I know how important they are. We can be on the plane to France if the results go our way and we win these two games. I’m excited to help the team get the six points that we need. If it turns out that we don’t, we still have two more games to play and I’m sure we’ll be in France next year.”
While it was the so-called lesser nations, Northern Ireland seemed to have a problem with playing away in recent times, the former Rangers man is confident that has been put right in this campaign.
“We never had a problem of going out and performing when we were underdogs. I think we’ve put that to one side now. In the last campaign, in certain matches, we let ourselves down and we let the country down, but Michael has got a great group here,” Lafferty added.
“We all want to work hard for each other and we believe we can be in France next summer.”
