Lennon has advice for new national manager... offer Griffiths his big comeback
NEIL LENNON might have distanced himself from the running to become the next Scotland manager but has a helpful idea for whoever is in charge of the next Euro 2020 qualifying double header in June.
The Celtic manager has offered up the return of a fully-fit Leigh Griffiths as a potential spark for the summer fixtures at home to Cyprus and away to Belgium.
Griffiths is currently grafting away behind the scenes at Lennoxtown, concentrating on conditioning work designed to prevent him from suffering further calf injuries. The striker was troubled
by a succession
of such fitness issues before being signed off from action in early December in order to deal with a variety of personal issues.
He hasn’t featured for his country since taking exception to being used only as a second-half substitute against Albania in September, with Steven Naismith preferred by Alex McLeish to lead the line.
With Griffiths, Naismith and, bizarrely, active Sheffield Wednesday forward Steven Fletcher unavailable last month, McLeish selected Marc McNulty, Oli McBurnie and Johnny Russell as his strikers.
The return of a hungry and fresh Griffiths would, therefore, be a huge boost to Scotland’s hopes of finishing another tumultuous season on an encouraging note. He was among a group of five Celtic players excused national service last summer when McLeish took a shadow squad to Mexico and Peru for post-season friendlies. This time Celtic will have no concerns about Griffiths going full pelt at international level after the domestic season ends. For that may assist in bringing the 28-year-old up to speed in time for the annual headache of early Champions League qualifiers looming in early July. ‘I think he’ll be fit for the qualifiers and it would do him good,’ suggested Lennon. ‘It would keep him ticking over. It would be nice for Scotland and it would be nice for me to have a quality striker added to the one I’ve got. He won’t be a million miles away, put it that way. He has a bit of work still to do. ‘There’s no reason why he can’t go with Scotland, play then come back and start into training with us. ‘The qualifier (away to Belgium) is on June 11 and we’re back on the 17th. He’s missed a lot of football and it’s not through a bad injury. He needs to catch up. ‘He’s in training twice a day on his own at the minute. He still has to be integrated into the group, so he’s still a week or two away from that. It is a slow, meticulous routine of conditioning so that he doesn’t break down again. Because he wasn’t in the right condition. ‘He is 28, at his peak and he still has plenty to offer. It looks like he wants it, so it is up to him to do the hard yards now. ‘He has to make sure through his own professionalism from here on in that his good conditioning doesn’t slip. ‘He’s a top-quality striker. At his peak he got 40 goals in one season. Why should he not get back to that level again?’