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Leigh Griffiths has apologized to Kyle Lafferty after facing backlash online for liking a photo of the distraught Northern Ireland striker.
Former Rangers and Hearts leader Lafferty chose to leave for his country a few days after the death of his sister Sonia, but was unable to help Ian Baraclough’s men secure a spot at the European Championship next summer. following a defeat in extra time to play-off rivals Slovakia.
The devastated 33-year-old, who carried his older brother’s coffin at his funeral last week, was photographed looking crestfallen at the final whistle as Michal Duris’s goal sent the visitors into Windsor Park.
Celtic and Scotland forward Griffiths has come in for heavy criticism after liking the distressed image of his former training partner Old Firm on Twitter.
Now the leader, who later deleted his Twitter account, insists he did not mean to offend the Lafferty family.
Griffiths, who scored one of the penalties in the penalty shootout win over Serbia that saw Scotland win their place in the Euro, posted on Instagram: “Not that I should do it, but after what I see on social media , I feel like I need to.
“After last night’s win, I want to say I was NOT criticizing Kyle Lafferty for losing a family member, who is the lowest of the low and not the type of person that I am.
“The photo was on a strip of Northern Ireland and the fact that they did NOT qualify and we did, which has been a great achievement for the entire nation!
“Everybody gets carried away and people think I liked it because their sister died, not at all.
“We won, they did not, they have mocked us for years of failure, but we did it.
“I want to apologize unreservedly for any misunderstandings of Kyle and his family. I don’t deserve what they sent me, but I’ve had enough and something had to be said about it!”
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