Northern Ireland Duo ware substituted as a precaution during their side 0-0 draw in Slovakia.

Northern Ireland Duo ware substituted as a precaution during their side 0-0 draw in Slovakia.

Michael Mr. O Neil

Northern Ireland football team manager Michael Mr. O Neil has allayed injury concerns over Kyle Lafferty and Craig Cathcart after both players were substituted in Saturday’s poor performance 0-0 draw with Slovakia. Cathcart was replaced with Aaron Hughes in the first half of the match, while Lafferty was replaced early in the second half of the match after collecting a knock. But their Team manager O Nail was not impressed by some of Slovakia’s challenges. And revealed that both players ware replaced only as a precaution as Northern Ireland extended their record unbeaten run to 12 matches. He said our both players are fine. It was precautionary. O Nail said about Lafferty’s calf injury and Cathcart’s back problem. Cathcart got a bad challenge, I thought. Obviously it was let go like many others. Kyle just had a little bit of tight calf from a kick. We have a plan to take off Kyle on 60 to 65 minutes. He wanted to stay on but there was no sense in it, and same with Craig. If it was the Poland game in that situation and we needed them they would not have come off. Slovakia had an opportunity of home ground, they were playing at home, the stadiums full and of the back of a 3-1 win over Germany. I am sure they wanted to give the supporters a send off and win the game I felt that some of the challenges under normal circumstances would have been punished with a yellow card but were not. He also said that he think the referee was lenient in fever of the home side at times. That’s understandable Slovakia head coach Jan Kozak meanwhile was pleased with his sides progress. As they prepare to open their maiden European Championship campaign against Wales next Saturday. Germany and Northern Ireland were two different matches; obviously, we play in both positions at home ground and away from home. In both matches we had to be cautious especially in the defense. Nevertheless. I believe our player are dominant they are able to play and I hope they will prove them in Euro 2016.

Kyle Lafferty & Craig Cathcart

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