Kyle Lafferty opens up on sectarian comment as he shares career regrets

Kyle Lafferty has opened up on his career regrets as he accepted he should have achieved more with Northern Ireland. The former Rangers striker's last cap for his country came two years ago against Cyprus.

The 37-year-old has not featured in a Northern Ireland squad since receiving a 10-game ban for a sectarian comment he made in September 2022.

Lafferty was withdrawn from Ian Baraclough's squad and subsequently suspended by the Scottish Football Association.

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The Kesh native says he doesn't know if that incident was the reason why he never wore the green jersey again, one he donned with pride over 89 appearances, scoring 20 goals.

"I've made a few mistakes. Obviously there is the video that came out from the nightclub. It was a mistake," he told the BBC.

"I'm not going to sit here and blame anyone else, the words came out of my mouth. Could it have been handled slightly better? Maybe. I felt I was flung under the bus in a way.

"Never getting a call-up since, was it down to that video? I don't know. But I still felt I could have been a massive asset to the team."

He added: "It is tough not being able to play my last game at Windsor in front of the fans, I had a great relationship with them.

"I like to think they always knew I was giving 110% but it is what it is. It's football, you make mistakes and you have to live with them."

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Lafferty's nomadic career saw him feature for clubs in England, Scotland, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Norway and Cyprus.

He had two spells at Rangers, where he won three Scottish Premiership titles, a Scottish Cup and two Scottish League Cups. He played a huge part in Northern Ireland reaching the 2016 Euro finals in France, scoring seven goals in a prolific qualifying campaign.

However, Lafferty, who currently plays for Scottish sixth-tier side Johnstone Burgh, admits there were times he feigned injury to avoid call-ups during the early part of his career.

He said: "Playing 89 times for your country is a massive achievement for anyone, but I am slightly disappointed not getting to 100. But that's probably down to my own fault.

"Probably earlier on in my career I didn't turn up at times when I should have. I should be well into 100 caps.

"Deciding to go on holiday instead of playing for your country at times. This was like when I was 21, 22, 23, just knowing that I'd done well previously that I'd get another call-up, taking liberties like I said.

"Maybe throwing in an injury where the rest of the team I was at might have been getting a few days off and taking the days off rather than going to play for your country.

"I wasn't injured, yeah, just stuff like that. Just daft stuff that you look back and think 'it was just so stupid of me'."

Despite his achievements on the pitch, Lafferty admitted he "has massive regrets" over his career.

He said: "I do have massive regrets. But it was all down to me. If I had listened to senior pros at the time, when I was a kid...

"There are so many highs, but there are so many regrets."

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