Lonely Leigh Griffiths admits to his Celtic regrets

Lonely Leigh Griffiths is shedding pounds at the boxing gym while football clubs resume pre-season training. 

Last July the striker was given a surprise reprieve when Celtic awarded him a 12 month contract but his spell at pre-season training in Wales was cut short as he returned to Scotland to deal with Police enquires. 

He did pull on the hoops in a friendly against West Ham but the reaction of supporters told all parties that there would be no way back for the 100 plus goal striker. 

Loan spells at Dundee and Falkirk yielded just five goals. Being rejected by three clubs in one season takes some going especially when the previous season had saw Griffiths scoring in Scotland’s dramatic shoot-out win over Serbia and in Celtic’s Scottish Cup Final win over Hearts. 

Facing up to a summer waiting on the phone to ring with an offer, the striker told the Daily Record: 

I’m not going to lie, it gets lonely. It knocks my confidence not having my future sorted but people such as Martin Clifford at the boxing gym have been brilliant at keeping my head above water. Six days a week I’m in training and all of this work will come to the fore when I get back onto the pitch.  

I’m ready to go but when is that chance going to come, is it going to come? Some of the sessions Martin puts on are absolutely brutal. I don’t envy any boxer who does this work to prepare for a fight as it’s so intense. Boxers are a different breed and footballers get it easy compared to them. 

I wish I’d done this type of training earlier in my career and if I’d done more in the off-season I wouldn’t be in this position. I’m now a free agent and hopefully I’ll be back scoring goals shortly. 

Successive Celtic managers warned Griffiths about the need to act an athlete’s lifestyle away from the park but his ability to grab goals always gave him additional allowances. Turning 32 in August those unheeded warnings took their toll last season.

Now, his reputation goes before him, having let down close pal James McPake at Dundee last season it will take quite a leap of faith for any manager to offer him a contract regardless of how much time he has spent in the gym.