Leigh Griffiths has been forced to deny liking a tweet that was abusive of Alex McLeish, branding the Scotland boss a ginger alkie.
Screen-grabs appeared on line showing that the Celtic striker had liked the tweet but it’s not difficult to create an image from a couple of tweets.
Predictably BBC Scotland quickly jumped on the screen-grab to give them an anti-Celtic story with no comment or denial from the player.
Since making his statement on Monday about withdrawing from the Scotland squad Griffiths hasn’t said a word but after the BBC ran with that story he contacted the Daily Record who reported:
But sources close to the player insisted he has been shocked by this latest twist, highlighted by BBC Scotland’s flagship evening news programme. And they stressed Griffiths denies adding his own name to the trolling.
One said: “Anyone who knows Leigh knows he’s a respectful guy who wouldn’t get involved in this kind of thing. He gets bombarded with stuff online all the time and has absolutely no recollection of ever seeing this tweet never mind pressing the like button.
“He has taken a break from the squad because he wants to work on his levels of fitness, for purely professional reasons. But he remains committed to the Scotland cause and would not do anything to risk his future involvement.”
The twitter account that the story was created from
Rather than draw a line under the incident and look forward to the match with Israel McLeish warned Griffiths that there were no guarantees over future selection, yesterday he claimed that he didn’t want to throw the striker under a bus.
That comment appears to have come to late after the treatment of the Celtic striker at the last international double header.
After being given the thankless task of facing Belgium on his own Griffiths watched from the bench as Steven Naismith and Jonny Russell were given the chance to impress against Albania.
Following those matches McLeish stated that wee Naisy would start against Israel then went public claiming that Griffiths refused to answer his calls when the squad was announced for the Israel and Portugal matches.
Meanwhile Kyle Lafferty has left his beloved Northern Ireland in the lurch by pulling out of their squad to face Austria despite being declared fit by his club. The former Hearts striker recently celebrated a full year without betting with an interview with the BBC.