O’Neill plays down injury worries

Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill has played down fears that both Craig Cathcart and Kyle Lafferty are struggling with injuries after they were forced off during the 0-0 draw with Slovakia.

O’Neill’s men took part in their final friendly before Euro 2016 a week after they beat Belarus 3-0 at Windsor Park. Northern Ireland maintained their unbeaten run and stretched it to 12 games but Slovakia were up for the occasion and did not hold back in the challenges.

Cathcart was kneed in the back and forced off the field before star striker Lafferty felt tightness in his calf and was also substituted. Both are considered key players ahead of their Group C campaign where they will face Germany,

Ukraine and Poland. However, O’Neill insists the duo should be fit enough to play in their first game of the tournament in France.

He said: “They’re both fine; it was precautionary. Cathcart got a bad challenge, I thought. Obviously it was let go, like many. “Kyle just had a little bit of a tight calf from a kick. We had planned to take off Kyle on 60-65 minutes. He wanted to stay on but there was no sense in it, and the same with Craig. If it was the Poland game in that situation and we needed them, they wouldn’t have come off.”

Northern Ireland will take on Poland in their first match on June 12, with O’Neill’s side the big outsiders at odds of 6.00. Poland are priced at 1.67 and the draw is 3.40.