I’ll never drop Healy says Worthington

NIGEL WORTHINGTON has hailed David Healy’s prolific scoring record at international level and insisted: “I’ll never drop him.”

The Fulham striker has found himself out of favour at Craven Cottage for much of the season but he will once again be the main man when Northern Ireland take on Georgia at Windsor Park tonight.

Healy broke Davor Suker’s 12-year European Championships qualifying record in the last campaign as his 13 strikes brought Nigel Worthington’s men to within a whisker of making it to Austria and Switzerland this summer.

UEFA president Michel Platini will be in Belfast to present Healy with a special award to recognise his feat in front of goal.

And the former France star has said the record will be difficult to top.

Platini explained: “The outstanding performance of David Healy in the qualifying competition of the European Championships and his tally of 13 goals is a new record and deserves to be recognised. I’m sure that this record will last for some time to come and will be hard to beat.

Worthington is not too concerned about Healy’s lack of first team opportunities at Fulham but he has admitted Northern Ireland cannot afford to leave him out of their side when the World Cup qualifying campaign begins in September — even if he is still out of favour at club level.

The former Norwich manager explained: “David fully deserves his award after the number of goals he scored. If a striker from a bigger country had done what David has achieved then people would have been shouting it from the roof-tops but he hasn’t got the coverage he deserves.

Fulham are struggling to retain their Barclays Premier League status but Worthington added: “Even if David is not in his club side in September, I still won’t leave him out because he is a goalscorer and vital to everything we do.”

After four early withdrawals from the squad, Worthington is down to the bare bones and three players — Alan Mannus, Michael Gault and Peter Thompson — were due to be playing for their Irish League side tonight.

Worthington is demanding a much-improved performance from last month’s defeat to Bulgaria.