McFadden: Scotland should forget Griffiths withdrawal

Striker Leigh Griffiths believes that he needs to utilise the upcoming international break to improve his fitness, ahead of club side Celtic's next Scottish Premier League fixture against Hibernian in two weeks time. The player has opted to conduct an individual fitness programmme at home for the next few weeks, as he believes this would be more individually beneficial than representing his country in their fixtures this month. 

Of course, the player is entitled to decide what he thinks is best for his personal development. However Scotland first team assistant coach James McFadden has queried the idea that the player is firstly unfit in the middle of October, and secondly, that he can build fitness better at home than if he was playing more minutes with the national team. 

When questioned on Griffith's withdrawal, McFadden said: "We don't work with them every day, so I don't know. You would need to ask Leigh, Celtic or somebody there. He's only been away with us once and it was one camp three or four weeks ago. The things you've got at your disposal now as a player, you shouldn't really have an excuse for not being fit, for me."

Outright, there has been no direct criticism of the player's sick note, however it is clear that  McLeish, McFadden and the rest of the Scotland coaching staff have been left unimpressed by the decision.

McFadden expressed his pride at playing for his country, and when questioned by the media, asserted his belief that, if called upon, there should not be any feasible reason for a player to withdraw from international duty, stating: " Any game, I wanted to play in it whether I was fully fit or not. I've played games in that situation. When we played France at home, I hadn't played in any games for four or five weeks due to a hamstring injury.

McFadden continued: "We didn't have any players and I didn't expect to play. But I came and played lone striker. I wasn't as fit as I would've liked to have been but I wouldn't ever have said no."

 

October 8, 2018

For all the grumblings behind the scenes within the Scotland camp,  the lack of striking options at manager McLeish's disposal, Griffiths is unlikely to have totally ruined his prospects of being called up  for Scotland again in the future.

However, it does make one wonder that, had there been a vast array of competition in the squad, or if Griffiths had been less prolific in the previous appearanceshe has made thus far, whether he would have totally damaged his chances of ever representing his country again.