Scotland international boss Alex McLeish has confirmed that he is hopeful over a return to full fitness by the middle of November for Celtic hitman Leigh Griffiths after he was left struck down with an injury blow.
The 28-year-old has had a hit-and-miss campaign when it comes to his fitness, missing the club’s early Champions League qualifying fixtures before pulling out of international duty on a fitness issue, and now, as reported by the Evening Times, has picked up a calf injury in training which left him out of the clash against Hibernian.
With Scotland set to play their final Nations League matches against Albania and Israel in mid-November, McLeish insisted he was hopeful, rather than confident, that the striker would be fit.
He was quoted by the Evening Times as saying: “I hope Leigh gets his fitness to a level where he feels he can play with Celtic and Scotland (in the Nations League).”
Opinion
It could be that McLeish is not aware of how serious the injury blow suffered by Griffiths is right now, but it does not sound positive that the hitman is going to make an immediate return to action. With the Scotland boss a fan of the Celtic man, you know that he would want to be kept in the loop by the club over his fitness right now, and as such the fact he is left hoping for a return to action in November does not bode well for club or country. Griffiths of course turned down Scotland to focus on his recovery from setbacks, but unfortunately it does not seem to have had the desired effect. Now his attentions will be turned to overcoming this injury blow, but it could be that the three weeks between now and Scotland’s return to international action is not long enough for him to consider himself fully fit, and McLeish will be left disappointed again.