Griffiths: I’m always up for Scotland
LEIGH GRIFFITHS last night underscored his commitment to Scotland’s cause and vowed to play a pivotal part in the quest to reach Euro 2020. The 28-year-old Celtic striker withdrew from Alex McLeish’s squad for the double-header against Israel and Portugal in October to focus on his fitness. Although Scotland assistant James McFadden described Griffiths’ decision as ‘brave’ at the time, he questioned the player’s commitment by insisting he would have — and did — turn up for international duty while not fully fit. Those comments came after Griffiths had described McLeish’s assertion that Steven Naismith was his No1 striker as ‘a kick in the teeth’ and gave the impression of a growing impasse between the Celtic striker and the Scotland camp. As it turned out, the striker’s planned period of recovery was interrupted by illness and injury which saw him miss last
month’s victories over Albania and Israel and was only bookended by him coming off the bench to score the third goal in his side’s 3-0 win over Hamilton last week. Speaking ahead of Celtic’s Premiership game against Motherwell tonight, though, Griffiths was adamant that his commitment to the cause was absolute. ‘You could say it was brave but a lot of people didn’t agree with that and I had to take the abuse I got on the chin,’ he said. ‘It was unfortunate that I was ill and injured at the same time. It is always difficult when people want to question it. ‘Online, it is very difficult to bite your tongue. You just need to step back and try to ignore it but it is difficult when you are in the street and people ask questions. You just need to give the answer you have been saying all along. ‘I have said time and again that there is no bigger honour in football than representing your country and I am still the same. ‘You hear a lot of people saying I took the huff because I wasn’t going to be playing. ‘It wasn’t like that at all. I have taken it on the chin here when I have been playing well and then not been playing the next game. ‘I wanted to concentrate on being fit. Looking forward, I am more than happy to go into the Scotland squad if I am selected. ‘I was looking at the draw for Euro 2020 and we have a good group for that, so hopefully I am involved. ‘That all comes from playing well for Celtic and getting game time.’ On Sunday, Scotland were drawn with Belgium, Russia, Cyprus, Kazakhstan and San Marino in European Championship qualifying, having already secured the back-up of a play-off semi-final against Finland should they fail to finish in the top two of their group. Insisting his relationship is cordial with the Scotland manager as far as he’s concerned, Griffiths added: ‘Everything is fine. Me and Mr McLeish had a chat. It wasn’t clearthe-air talks but I vented my personal opinion of what I wanted to do and he accepted that. ‘There was no animosity or anger between either of us. I texted him after they won the two games (Albania and Israel) to get into the play-off and he quickly replied. Hopefully I am still in his plans.’