CRAIG Gordon played through the pain barrier as Celtic made history at Hampden on Saturday then insisted the only way he would have missed the occasion would have been if someone had chopped his legs off.
The Scotland goalkeeper was a pre-match doubt for the season-ending showpiece having missed the final three games of the Parkhead side’s league season with a knee injury.
Legacy of serious knee injuries or not, Brendan Rodgers pitched the veteran back into battle at Mount Florida and was rewarded with precisely the kind of composed display which makes him so important to the club.
Read more: Tam McManus: The gap is huge - don’t bet against a Celtic triple treble
“I was struggling a bit - but you would have needed to chop my legs off to stop me playing,” said Gordon. “It was still pretty sore during the game but I managed to get through it - and now I’ve got four weeks off. I knew that I could get through a game but you know, it’s not easy to leave me out for the three games leading into the final, then have the faith to put me back in when it really mattered. But he did. And I’m thankful to him for that. With another clean sheet, hopefully that repaid him.”
How long can Gordon carry on playing at this level? Well, he has two years left on this contract, and all going well he could stay even longer. “Gianluigi Buffon has just left Juventus at 40,” said Gordon. “I’ve still got a wee bit to go if I want to catch him up. But you never know. As long as I’m fit enough to keep contributing to this team, keep playing in such a successful team, then I’ll go into next season and try to do the same again. I’ve still got two years left on this contract and I want to go on as long as possible. If my body’s OK, I’ll go on well beyond that.”
Read more: Martin O'Neill insists Brendan Rodgers can follow up double treble with Celtic European success
Gordon admits it won’t take long to focus on make it a treble treble. ‘We do set the bar high. We’ll celebrate this one, then get together in pre-season and set our aims to go again. You do get greedy for success. But the guys in there know how much this has taken. I can’t see it being done again – not for a very long time.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here