NEIL LENNON is trying to persuade Craig Gordon to stay at Celtic after the keeper admitted he may look to leave the club in January to save his Scotland career.
Gordon started Thursday night’s defeat to Cluj in Romania, but after the match he outlined his desire for regular first-team football as he tries to force his way into Steve Clarke’s plans for the Euro 2020 playoffs in March.
That has led Lennon to hold talks with the 36-year-old to reiterate his own wishes for him to stay with the champions, but the Celtic manager admits the decision may be out of his control.
“I’ve had a wee chat with Craig,” Lennon said. “He’s a player I’d be loath to let go because he’s a quality goalkeeper.
“Fraser (Forster) is the number one and if anything happened to him then Craig is a ready-made replacement to step in.
“From a selfish point of view, we want him to stay. He might have his own principles and want to leave. It’s a situation not of Craig’s making.
“He’s a great pro and I get the fact he might want to play more games.”
Another player who spoke after the Cluj game about the possibility of quitting the club due to his lack of first-team opportunities was Scott Sinclair, with the winger claiming he has been ‘pushed to the side’.
“I’m not aware of those quotes,” Lennon said. “We will have a chat with Sincy going forwards.
“It’s been a difficult period for him because of the quality in front of him.”
Lennon was speaking after watching his side maintain their position at the top of the Premiership with a 2-0 win over Hibernian. Goals from Jeremie Frimpong and Odsonne Edouard were enough to claim the three points at Celtic Park, and Lennon gave an update afterwards on some men who were missing from the game through injury.
"(Jonny) Hayes has the shoulder injury, he took a bad one in the cup final and we’re assessing day by day," he said. "Ryan (Christie) should be fit for Wednesday.
"(Mohamed) Elyounoussi had a reaction to the foot injury. I don’t know how long he’ll be out. We’re hoping he will be fit for Wednesday.
"But we should hopefully have a lot of pace and creativity back which we will need for the next four games."
Hibernian manager Jack Ross meanwhile thinks that his team can take real belief from their performance at Celtic Park into Friday night’s clash against Rangers at Easter Road.
“Friday is a different dynamic as we are playing at home,” Ross said. “It will be a different match.
“If we can take the pluses from today, and there probably were more pluses than minuses, and do certain elements of the game better, we’ve got a strong belief we can win that match.”
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