LEIGH Griffiths has prohibited himself from attending Hibs matches at Tynecastle or Ibrox on his days off in order to avoid unwelcome attention.
He still likes to turn up suddenly at Easter Road from time to time, though. Perhaps that is just as well, considering the 24-year-old would dearly love to gatecrash Scotland's friendly against Qatar at his old stomping ground on June 5.
It is surprising to think that Griffiths has yet to feature for his country as a Celtic player. But then he has taken his time to play this well. With 15 goals in his last 18 matches for the club, including two hat-tricks in April, this native of Leith is one of the least controversial winners of the SPFL player of the month prize.
Yet while he earned kudos for leading the line in a 1-0 win against Croatia in Zagreb, his last inter- national outing came in a 2-0 defeat to Belgium in September 2013.
There have been lowlights and mis-steps along the way but, sitting contentedly within Celtic's Lennoxtown complex, he looks for all the world like a player for whom the penny has dropped. For if he is to attain his goals - with Celtic and Scotland - Griffiths is required to work doubly hard.
It is his misfortune that his managers for both club and country operate a system which is more efficient with a long, lean body up there to run the channels, protect the ball and get on the end of crosses. John Guidetti, Stefan Scepovic and Amido Balde may not have proved to be the answer, but no doubt the Parkhead side will be back browsing their usual markets again this summer.
The one thing Griffiths cannot do is make himself taller, but the personal growth he has undergone recently is unmistakable. Since a heart-to-heart with Ronny Deila in November, he has honed his touch with his back to goal and transformed his body in the gym, as well as putting more effort in to preparations off the field.
He admits he was effectively shamed into mending his ways by having to explain to his children Rhys, Kacie, Layla and Jacob why he wasn't playing each week.
"I realised I had to knuckle down," said Griffiths. "I knew I only had one chance here. I have left all that off-the-field stuff behind me and now I am getting talked about for the right reasons, in the back pages rather than the front. I am hardly ever out in Edinburgh. I am always spending time with my kids and if not, I am preparing for games or sitting watching the TV. If I am out and something happens I know I need to walk away, because I know [if there is] one bad situation and I will be out the door."
If his skipper, Scott Brown, is one former Hibs man who overcame adversity to make himself a Celtic mainstay, the same cannot be said of Derek Riordan, who never did quite win Strachan over.
"Obviously, you need to ask him what happened here," said Griffiths. "But yeah, that could have been me."
Things reached a crisis point in November when Griffiths sought out Deila and John Collins for a heart to heart.
"I started my Celtic career well but last summer when I came back I maybe wasn't as fit as I should have been and maybe that's why the manager didn't play me," said Griffiths. "I had probably let myself go a bit. I didn't do a lot of stuff and left it too late.
"I was going home angry, disappointed and hurt at not playing. My kids were getting upset that I wasn't playing. They like seeing me on the pitch scoring goals. When they asked why I wasn't playing it was hard to give them an answer, but since the turn of the year they've enjoyed coming back to games again.
"They [Deila and Collins] said the only way to change it was to work even harder. So I worked - on the park, off the park - just small things, like working on my touch, because this manager plays with one up top. You need to run around a lot and be stronger and fitter. So I've gone to the gym a lot.
"It was also the way I was living - eating right at home, being prepared for games and working as hard as I could when I came in here. If the manager wants a tall striker then he has to go and get one but I'll be working on my fitness in the summer to be ready for pre-season and the Champions League qualifiers."
As for that potential place against Qatar, and possibly the Republic of Ireland in Dublin a week later, there has been no dialogue with Strachan and the national team boss's public comments on the subject have been ambivalent. Strachan said only that he had been a "substitute up until about six games ago" and revealed that he and assistant boss Mark McGhee had been checking the form of the Charlton striker Tony Watt.
"The league's won now and I've put myself forward for the Scotland camp that's coming up, then I'll go away and enjoy my summer - but not the way I did last season," said Griffiths. "I'll come back raring to go. I know Scotland have got strikers who are full of goals - Jordan Rhodes, Steven Fletcher, Steven Naismith, Ross McCormack, me - but it's just about getting that chance. I was disappointed not to be in the last squad but I've scored more goals now. If the chance comes I'll be delighted."
One of Griffiths' incognito trips to watch Hibs occurred last week. He turned up 10 minutes into the last- day win against Falkirk.
"Obviously, the games you don't want to be going to are at Tynecastle or Ibrox because you know it is just going to cause uproar," he said. "Going to Easter Road, you are away from the crowds. You sit in the directors' box and you don't get any hassle. We were off for the weekend and I know a few of the boys who were playing so I thought I would go and support them. I just go to the game, get out as quickly as possible, get in the car and go home."
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