A different type of Kyle Lafferty show

One French media outlet labelled him ‘the unknown Irishman’, and no-one is throwing his name into the list of Golden Boot contenders, but few players are so central to their team’s hopes in France as Kyle Lafferty is to Northern Ireland.

The rise of one is inextricably linked to the other — both have spent years traversing Europe for little gain, after all — so the drip-feed of information on his apparent return towards full fitness after injuring a groin muscle in training this week must rank as a form of water torture to the side’s fans.

He wasn’t always embraced warmly. It is less than three years since Lafferty was something of a pariah after a senseless sending-off against Portugal in Belfast that turned the game in the visitors’ favour. Now he is firmly written into Michael O’Neill’s good books after seven qualifying goals.