O’Neill selects Grigg ahead of County’s Boyce
MICHAEL O’NEILL believes Will Grigg can be Northern Ireland’s equivalent of Marcus Rashford after naming the prolific Wigan Athletic striker in his final 23-man squad for Euro 2016.
While the remarkable Rashford was scoring his first international goal for England on Friday night, Grigg got off the mark in Northern Ireland’s 3-0 win over Belarus at Windsor Park — four years after winning the first of his nine caps.
It confirmed O’Neill’s decision to select Grigg, who hit 28 goals for Wigan in League One this season, ahead of Ross County’s Liam Boyce even though he admitted it was the toughest call he had to make when considering his squad for France.
Asked if Grigg, 24, could be Northern Ireland’s Rashford, O’Neill said: ‘Why not? The most important thing in any player at international level is to get confidence.
‘Will has just kept scoring, 28 goals in a team that has just been promoted to the Championship. He is in a good place and he came on against Belarus and scored his first international goal.
‘I put him in my second squad four years ago (against Holland). There has been a process for him to feel like he belongs in the squad.
‘The most difficult choice was between Liam Boyce and Will, if I’m being honest. Liam had a great first half of the season but then he got a hand injury and I didn’t feel he was as good in the second half of the season. It was a difficult decision but I think it was the right one.’
O’Neill informed the five players who have missed out — Boyce, Michael Smith, Daniel Lafferty, Billy McKay and Ben Reeves — on Wednesday, well in advance of the Belarus game and the official squad announcement at the Titanic museum in Belfast yesterday.
N IRELAND SQUAD:
A Mannus (St Johnstone), M McGovern (Hamilton Academical), R Carroll (Linfield); C Cathcart (Watford), J Evans (WBA), G McAuley (WBA), L McCullough (Doncaster), C McLaughlin (Fleetwood Town), L Hodson (MK Dons), A Hughes (Free agent), P McNair (Manchester United), C Baird (Derby County); S Davis (Southampton), O Norwood, (Reading), C Evans, (Blackburn), S Ferguson (Millwall), S Dallas (Leeds United), N McGinn (Aberdeen), J Ward (Nottingham Forest); K Lafferty (Norwich City), C Washington (QPR), J Magennis (Kilmarnock), W Grigg (Wigan).