At this stage, we know only a handful of things about Will Grigg.
We know he’s a striker, we know he’s in Northern Ireland’s Euro 2016 squad, and we know he’s on fire.
Grigg edged out Liam Boyce to earn a spot in Michael O’Neill’s final selection, after a season in which he scored 25 league goals.
And now it looks as though the 24-year-old is in with a shot of starting the opening group game against Poland after fellow frontman Kyle Lafferty limped out of a training session, even if O’Neill has played down concerns.
#Euro2016 | Northern Ireland striker Kyle Lafferty has limped out of training early today & may miss the tournament. pic.twitter.com/EzFtNzN0RY
— Betfred (@Betfred) June 7, 2016
Michael O'Neill confirms after training that Kyle Lafferty was removed from the session as a precaution and is not an injury concern 👍#GAWA
— Northern Ireland (@NorthernIreland) June 7, 2016
Lafferty was Northern Ireland’s top scorer in qualifying, finding the net seven times as they topped a group containing Romania, Hungary, Finland, the Faroe Islands and Greece.
His 17 career international goals constitute more than a third of those scored by the entire 23-man squad put together, and no other squad member has hit double figures internationally.
If Lafferty is forced to sit out the opener (or indeed the tournament), Grigg will do battle with QPR’s Conor Washington and Kilmarnock’s Josh Magennis for a starting place.
And Grigg has already impressed in his time with the Norn Iron team, scoring his first international goal in the recent victory over Belarus.
