Healy provides little clarity on Cooper's Blues future
David Healy played down his team's 13-point advantage at the top of the Irish Premiership
- Published
Linfield boss David Healy refused to speak about Joel Cooper's future with the club after Saturday's win over Glenavon beyond saying that the winger will be involved in the Boxing Day contest against Glentoran.
Cooper is reported to have signed a pre-contract agreement with Coleraine which will see him move to the Bannsiders at the end of this season.
The player is in the final six months of his current Linfield contract which means he can speak to other clubs.
Asked if he was resigned to losing Cooper at the end of this season or whether he could reassure Linfield fans that the winger will stay at Windsor Park for the rest of the current campaign, Healy replied: "Joel Cooper wasn't involved in the game today. I'm here to talk about the game and the performance levels and the next game.
"Joel will have rested up and will be ready to go again on Boxing Day. He'll be fresh and he'll be fit and I look forward to seeing Joel playing on Boxing Day."
Saturday's win moved the Blues a whopping 13 points clear at the top of the table but Healy played down his team's runaway advantage.
"To me, it's of no great significance at all. Whether it's a point or three points or six…..it doesn't really matter because we're so early in it," Healy told BBC Radio Ulster's Sportsound.
"It was our 20th league game so we've 18 to go. We're barely over half way. A lot of teams now will have the opportunity to go and start hitting form."
Linfield laboured to beat Paddy McLaughlin's Glenavon side, just as they did in their two previous games against Coleraine and Dungannon Swifts, but the Blues once again clinched the three points.
"It was a really, really tough game. Pleased with the outcome. Nowhere near the levels where we needed to be at but we kept going.
"Credit to Paddy. They made it really difficult for us. We lost possession. We didn't pick that right pass and we never looked likely of scoring a second goal."