Davie Provan has questioned the thinking that left Leigh Griffiths out of the Scotland squad.
The striker was out of football for seven months to deal with personal issues but returned to action with a spectacular goal against Nomme Kalju and strikes in Celtic’s opening SPFL wins against St Johnstone and Motherwell.
Griffiths has had to watch Odsonne Edouard and Vakoun Bayo grab the jersey at Celtic but he has already shown that he is back in contention and has a track record of scoring for Scotland with his double against England in 2017 the international highlight of the last decade.
When Steve Clarke announced his Scotland squad it was mentioned that it was in Griffiths’ best interest to remain with Celtic but after watching a laboured display by Ollie McBurnie Scotland fans are asking why Griffiths isn’t a squad member.
Writing in The Sun Provan stated:
Elsewhere, the omission of Griffiths made no sense. Clarke said he was giving Griff time to get back up to speed — but he picked Steven Naismith, who has played less football this season than the Celtic striker. And when Scotland got that late free-kick on the edge of the box against Russia, was there anyone who wouldn’t have wanted Griffiths over the ball?
Scotland face Belgium at Hampden tomorrow night facing the prospect of dropping into fifth place in the group if they lose and results elsewhere go against them.