KYLE Lafferty has put Neil Lennon on notice by saying he is ready to leave Norwich City in January to stay sharp for Euro 2016.

The powerful striker, well known to the Wanderers boss from his time at Celtic, has been restricted to just two substitute appearances at Carrow Road this season.

Lafferty’s seven goals in nine qualifying games helped fire Northern Ireland into next summer’s showpiece tournament – but the 28-year-old admits regular football is a must in the new year to keep himself in tune.

Lennon has been shopping for a regular goalscorer for some time and has been consistently linked with the former Rangers man.

But after questioning whether Lafferty was ready to leave the top flight behind, the Whites boss may now have received the encouragement he needs.

The Fermanagh forward is planning talks with Canaries boss Alex Neil and could seek football elsewhere if he is deemed surplus to requirement.

“I'm going to have to sit down with the manager in January and have a discussion with him," said Lafferty.

“I know that I will need to play football in the new year and going into the Euros.

“It is difficult at my club at present with not playing, but I will keep training and working away in the hope I get my chance.

“I'd love to be playing at Norwich but if I have to go out on loan or be sold to play football that might be the way it will be.

“For the Euros I want to be in the best shape of my life and need to be playing to do that.”

Whether Wanderers would be able to muster a financial package to tempt Norwich into a loan would be another matter altogether.

The club’s interest in bringing Gary Hooper to the Macron came to nothing after the Canaries demanded the whole of his wage was paid by any club taking him on. Sheffield Wednesday eventually took the bait – but the financial package was way beyond the Whites’ means at present.

Lafferty’s wage is not at the same level and his record in the Championship with Burnley would make him an attractive prospect for any club looking for goals in the second half of the campaign.

Lennon spoke about the striker last month as he weighed up the funds available to him.

“Kyle Lafferty may want to play at the highest level going into the Euros, so we haven't touched on that yet,” he said.

“We don't want to be talking about a player at another club or speculating about players. But you'll have to ask Kyle what he'll want to do and what his position is.

“I know he said he was aiming to fight for his place at Norwich, whether that's changed or not, I don't know.”

Meanwhile Wanderers’ number two Steve Walford could sign an extended deal with the Republic of Ireland in the new year.

Martin O’Neill has indicated he would sit down with the FAI after the two-legged play-off with Bosnia-Herzegovina to discuss his future, along with that of Walford and his assistant Roy Keane.

Walford has shared his time between international duties and those at Wanderers since replacing Johan Mjallby as Lennon’s right-hand man in mid-September.

He will be in the dugout tomorrow night as the Irish travel to Bosnia for the first leg, with a home tie in Dublin to be played on Monday evening.

And O’Neill has hinted he would like to extend the two-year contract he signed in 2013, if there is an appetite for him to do so.

“I'm quite happy at this moment in time,” O’Neill told the Irish Times. “It ends when the campaign ends, so if we reach the tournament, it carries through until the summer and there's a natural continuation after that.

"If we don't get the result we want against Bosnia, I think Delaney and myself will sit down after Christmas. There are friendly games in March, I think, so it will be time to discuss things before those.

"If the FAI are happy with the progress – and John and the board have been very supportive – I think it is something they want.

"If the games against Bosnia don't go well, they might change their mind, but they have been very supportive. I think it's something they genuinely want."