Northern Ireland: ‘This squad has a lot of potential’, says Shayne Lavery

Northern Ireland striker Shayne Lavery believes the squad has “a lot of potential” despite the loss of some experienced players in recent years.

Jonny Evans last week became the latest Northern Ireland stalwart to retire from international football, following Steven Davis and Craig Cathcart, while Stuart Dallas ended his career because of injury.

While Lavery admits Evans in particular will be hard to replace, he thinks there is enough talent in the squad to help them get their Nations League campaign off to a good start with victories against Luxembourg and Bulgaria over the next week.

“You look at Trai Hume, Conor Bradley and Daniel Ballard they all have a lot of caps themselves, so I think it is very exciting and this squad has a lot of potential,” he told BBC Sport NI.

“Obviously, it is a young squad and Jonny retiring last week is going to be a big miss, but these are good games to gel as a team and hopefully we can get two wins.”