ian1964 10,410 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 NO LAFF-ING MATTER Rangers striker Kyle Lafferty set to be BLOCKED from playing against Hamilton by furious Northern Ireland chiefs The Gers forward surprisingly pulled out of Michael O'Neill's squad for games against Austria and Bosnia. FURIOUS Northern Ireland chiefs have blocked stayaway hitman Kyle Lafferty from playing for Rangers at Hamilton on Sunday. Gers ace Lafferty declared himself unfit with an Achilles injury ahead of his country’s Nations League double header. And the Irish have now invoked the FIFA five-day rule, which rules him out of the Light Blues’ trip to Accies. A Northern Ireland source said: “The Irish FA have informed Rangers we will be invoking the five-day rule. “An email was sent to Rangers on Tuesday afternoon.” Even though Northern Ireland played their second game of the international break on Monday the Fifa rule came into effect at the end of the international week. It means Lafferty can’t play for Steven Gerrard’s troops until Monday at the earliest. Gaffer Michael O’Neill was livid after Lafferty called him at midnight the night before his squad were due to meet up in Austria and says he will speak to the ex-Hearts hitman this week. Lafferty’s absence left Northern Ireland short on front men with Jamie Ward and Conor Washington already unavailable and Will Grigg suffering a hamstring injury in Vienna. They lost both Nations League games to Austria and Bosnia-Herzegovina, meaning they are facing relegation from League B. https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/3357772/kyle-lafferty-rangers-blocked-hamilton-northern-ireland/ 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buster. 4,808 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 All in all, a somewhat mysterious, very last minute and unilateral call-off that has the folk at N.I. so peeved that they may risk a 'permanent call-off' to invoke the 5 day rule. Can't really complain, thems the rules. We won't have Lafferty or Morelos for the semi-final and we might end up trialing a new set-up in the second half at Hamilton. Perhaps a plus, perhaps better to keep it a secret. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
compo 6,127 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Just tell the northern Irish FA he's retired from international football . 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,240 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 1 hour ago, compo said: Just tell the northern Irish FA he's retired from international football . Dunno whether that would lift his ban, but a strange thing to do. He's one of their prime striker for years and sure wouldn't have called this off "just because". He wasn't playing for us either vs Hearts and if he was injured, what's the point? Methinks the Racist did likewise and we have yet to hear any word from the SFA (NO, I said No! laughing at the back!) 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 5,195 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 2 hours ago, der Berliner said: Dunno whether that would lift his ban, but a strange thing to do. He's one of their prime striker for years and sure wouldn't have called this off "just because". He wasn't playing for us either vs Hearts and if he was injured, what's the point? Methinks the Racist did likewise and we have yet to hear any word from the SFA (NO, I said No! laughing at the back!) He did play against Hearts 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFK-1 1,671 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 I think if I were Lafferty moving into the latter stages of a football career I may respond to this with a call telling them not to consider me at all in future. Once into the 30's muscle strains become more frequent and the type of knock that used to take a couple of days or so to get over in the 20's now takes longer. I would be requiring the freedom to judge myself how I felt at the time and if they can't grant that freedom without a potential end result like this then I would be out. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trublusince1982 243 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Pathetic man management. Got to retire now the relationship between player and manager is finished. Obviously zero trust or respect. You would think the fact he phoned personally would be enough to give the player credit 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert 17 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 8 hours ago, craig said: He did play against Hearts Yup - came on towards the end of the game. I thought he'd be a stick-on to score. Alas... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Barristan Selmy 222 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) Not sure where I stand on this. Calling off last minute seems a shitty move, but 20 goals for an international side with an extremely poor squad is bloody good going. Lafferty is a little like David Healy, impressive goal scorer for NI, but struggled to ever achieve much club wise Edited October 17, 2018 by Ser Barristan Selmy 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
1972tango 0 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 First post on this forum. My first thought was he should just retire now. Gerrard has him playing at a pace he never played at before, so maybe the old bones and muscles are suffering and taking longer to rest up. Or maybe he was just fed up with all the travel time he has had lately with Rangers and then having to travel again with NI ? He made a decision for whatever reason, and now he is having his wrist slapped. Got to accept it and move on. Unfortunately, he has buggered up things for Rangers as well as he can't play for us this weekend. Don't think he knew about that rule when he called off? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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