NEIL LENNON has slammed Leigh Griffiths after the Celtic striker returned to pre-season training overweight.
The Hoops boss was forced to leave the Scotland international at home instead of taking him with the squad to a training camp in Loughborough before heading over to France for three pre-season friendly matches.
And last night following the Hoops' draw against Nice, Lenny decided to let rip at Griffiths to the media.
He raged: “I’m not happy. I think that’s fairly obvious by the fact that we’ve left him behind.
“He’s come back out of condition and overweight. Any physical work we asked him to do he was coming out of saying he was injured.
“That’s going to be the case because he’s out of condition.
“So it would have been absolutely pointless bringing him with us. We had an extensive week in Loughborough and he wouldn’t have been fit to play the games here in France.
“The ball is firmly in his court now in terms of getting himself in the right condition.”
Griffiths vowed he would prove his doubters wrong in an Instagram post where he shared a quote from the Rocky Balboa film.
But Griff's social media presence along with a number of comical TikTok videos are not impressing his gaffer.
Lennon continued: “He needs to stop all the social media nonsense with all these slogans he puts out there. It’s not the real world we all live in.
“The boys here are all top professionals and I have a great staff who are all professional as well. They deserve better and he should know better.
“He needs to get his head down and get fit because that’s what we pay him for. We’ve done everything we possibly could for him.
“He had a long lay-off and came back to get back into the team.
“For me he was still a bit short fitness-wise but had enough to get through the Scottish games.
“But if he wants to have a future here at the club it’s down to himself.
“We’re not prepared to do a lot more for him. Everything’s there for him. He’s let himself down and he’s let us down.
“You can never say never about chances but he’s got a lot to do to get back in around it.
“The ball is firmly in his court and it shouldn’t have come to this. He shouldn’t have been out of condition and he shouldn’t have been heavier.”
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