Scotland’s national team gaffer Alex McLeish has stated that he’d welcome Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths back to the international fold with open arms when he returns to the game.
The 28-year-old has taken a break from football for the foreseeable future to address some ongoing personal issues with the support of the club, and although he was named in the group for the matches against Israel and Portugal in October, he pulled out to work on his fitness.
McLeish has left him out of the group at points as well but he told Sky Sports that there certainly wasn’t any animosity between the pair and nor had they had a falling out, and when the player was back to his full form, he would definitely be brought back in.
“Yeah, of course. I said to him when I spoke to him a couple of weeks afterwards, people were trying to drive a wedge between us, but I spoke to him. I said ‘look there are no guarantees and I’d say that to anybody Leigh, but if you are playing at your top level then of course there is going to be a great chance you wear a Scotland jersey again’. We are a small nation, we don’t have a lot of striking choices and if he’s at his best then he is up there with our best finishers in the country.”
Griffiths at his best speaks for himself when it comes to what he brings to the pitch and I would imagine McLeish’s words will come as a small boost to him.