CRAIG Gordon is not by nature somebody who bears a grudge.

And having helped Celtic go undefeated domestically this season and win only the fourth treble in their history, he has nothing to feel especially resentful about at the present moment.

But should the goalkeeper help Scotland to overcome an England side which contains a certain Jermain Defoe in a Russia 2018 qualifier at Hampden this evening it will be particularly sweet for him.

Gordon suffered a broken arm following a challenge by Defoe in an English Premier League match between Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane back in 2009. He spent over two months out as a result.

The 34-year-old has certainly not let the injury, which required three separate operations and a metal plate inserted to fix it, hamper his career since then. He admitted, though, that the episode still rankles with him to this day.

Defoe, the Sunderland forward, has been recalled to his national team by new manager Gareth Southgate this season after a three year absence and could feature at some stage up front in the Group F match. His presence on the field will give his opponent the opportunity to settle a score.

“I know Defoe well,” said Gordon. “There is plenty of history there. He broke my arm a few years ago, so you could definitely say there’s a bit of history there. I wasn’t pleased with the challenge.

“I went out to dive at his feet. He kicked my arm and broke it. When something as bad as that happens to you in your career then it’s obviously going to stick with you a bit. I had problems after it. I had to re-breaking. I’ve still got the metal work in there from the three operations I needed to fix it. It can still hurt.

“He tried to make contact after the game, but I wasn’t interested in speaking to him. It had a lot of impact on the progress I was making in my career at that time. I missed three months, came back and played a few games, then they tried to take the metal plate back out.

“I broke my arm again, missed another three or four months. That’s a good chunk of a season to miss. By the time I played my way back into good form, it took a lot out of me.”

Gordon added: “It was just before the international break. Everybody kind of disappeared on their holidays and it got swept under the carpet, quite conveniently.

“I had been picked for the Scotland squad, so I had to phone from the hospital to tell them I wouldn’t be meeting up with the team for the game. It probably did cost me a few caps. But injuries happen. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it.

“There are other challenges that I’ve made that could have hurt people. It’s just part of the game. You move on. I won’t be thinking about that at any point during the game. I’ll be focusing on the game. Let’s just hope he doesn’t score.”

Harry Kane, the Spurs striker who received the Premier League Gold Boot last month after finishing top scorer in the English top flight for the second season running, will probably start for the visitors.

Gordon rates Kane, who has stated he would like to get his goals tally for his country up by scoring a hat-trick this weekend, highly and knows the Scotland defence will have to be at their sharpest to prevent him from netting.

“He’s very good,” he said. “He is one of the top goalscorers in England, probably one of the best of his type of forwards. He can hold the ball up and he’s also good in the air. He chases people down and scores goals. Really, for the modern game he has everything you’d want from a striker and he’s one we have to pay special attention to.”

Asked about his controversial hat-trick remark, he said: “Listen, he’s a good player and he has scored a lot of goals so he is confident and wants to go into every game and score goals. I can’t see any problems in those comments whatsover. That’s exactly what he’ll be looking to do. But hopefully our strikers are thinking along the same lines.”

Gordon has admitted he would dearly like to round off an unforgettable season at club level with Celtic by helping Scotland record a famous victory over England – just like his predecessor Ronnie Simpson did 50 years ago.

“There have been a lot of references to the Lisbon Lions and 1967 this season,” he said. “Scotland beat England that year as well. If we can replicate that it would be a nice way to finish.

“Stevie Woods (the Celtic goalkeeping coach) told me. He was the first one to mention it. The Celtic goalkeeper also played in that game. It would be nice to draw parallels with that. It would be a good thing to finish it off in the same way.

“We know that if we perform we have a good chance of taking something from this game and creating something special. Let’s be honest, they have got a very good team. But we have good players who can cause them trouble and will have to play at our best. If we do that then we do have a chance of taking something from this game.

“That is all we have been focusing on, trying to get ourselves in the best possible place to go out there and give a good account of ourselves. If we do that then we will definitely give them a fright and we are confident we have a chance of taking something from the game.”