Former Hearts star gets candid over career as high points can't shake belief over what could have been

Former Hearts star Kyle Lafferty has been left with major regrets over his career.

The striker made 89 appearances for Northern Ireland, and made his name in Scottish football initially with Rangers. He scored 20 goals in 48 games during a prolific spell at Hearts between 2017-18 before returning to the Ibrox club.

Lafferty has been at the centre of controversy over the course of his career though, not featuring for his country after a 10-game ban for a sectarian comment he made in September 2022. The Scottish FA moved to suspend him. Speaking with the BBC and asked if he had regrets and felt slightly unfulfilled, Lafferty said: “Yes, there’s so much. Three titles for Rangers, four cup medals, 89 caps, 20 goals (internationally). Second highest goalscorer.

“Played with and against some of the world’s best players. It is what it is but I do have massive regrets. It was all down to me. I think if I had listened to senior pros at the time I was a kid...there’s so many highs but so many regrets.”

He added: "I've made a few mistakes. Obviously there is the video that came out from the nightclub. It was a mistake. I'm not going to sit here and blame anyone else, the words came out of my mouth. Could it have been handled slightly better? Maybe. I felt I was flung under the bus in a way.

“Never getting a call-up since, was it down to that video? I don't know. But I still felt I could have been a massive asset to the team."

Lafferty says he’s now in a good place after revealing he recently suffered a relapse into a gambling addition. The 37-year-old said: "I think I started when I was 12 and my last bet was six months ago. I was off it for three and a half years. Addiction is addiction.

"If you don't follow your programs or control your addictions you fall back into and unfortunately I fell back into it. I went and got proper help from the right people and I'm now coming up to six months clean again.

"I've hid for many years with my addiction and the best thing I've done is speak about it. I've helped a lot of people, people have contacted me to ask for advice to get through their addiction."

More recently since leaving Hearts, Lafferty has played for Sunderland, Kilmarnock, Linfield in the UK and teams abroad, now in the sixth tier of Scottish football with Johnstone Burgh.