Kyle Lafferty trained with the Northern Ireland team on Friday morning, easing fears about his fitness ahead of Sunday's Euro 2016 opener with Poland on Sunday.

Northern Ireland play their first-ever match at the finals of the European Championship against Poland on Sunday - boosted by the return to fitness of striker Kyle Lafferty.

Lafferty has recovered from a groin strain and looks likely to face the Poles - welcome news for defender Gareth McAuley who described Lafferty as "a big, big player" for Northern Ireland.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Gareth McAuley, Northern Ireland: (on the return to fitness of striker Kyle Lafferty)

" he's all right, he's in good spirits. It give us all a bit of a scare but he's fine.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Gareth McAuley, Northern Ireland: (asked about Laffertty's horse impression)

"That's Kyle. He keeps us entertained and especially when you guys (media) are around, he's not far off making himself the clown. But once we get into the stadium he'll be fully focused and he knows how important he is to us and he's a big, big player and he's a big player in what we're trying to do."

McAuley and fellow defender Paddy McNair have also acknowledged the threat posed by Poland's Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski - the leading scorer in Euro qualifying with 13 goals.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Paddy McNair, Northern Ireland:

"Poland are, you know, favourites and we'll be going into the game with a game plan and we've watched videos of Poland and I think there's areas to exploit. Lewandowski, he scores a lot of goals but I don't think he's the only threat, they've got (Kamil) Grosicki, (Arkadiusz) Milik as well. We'll need to keep an eye on all three of them."

While most expect Poland to win, despite being two places below Michael O'Neill squad in the Fifa rankings at 27th,
they hope they can utlise the strong support they're getting back home in Northern Ireland.