Craig Gordon may be wanting the ground to swallow him up after he received another blow – this time courtesy of Scotland head coach Steve Clarke.
The former Kilmarnock boss excluded the 36-year-old from his latest Scotland squad and then intimated that Gordon was past the point of international selection.
“I’m not putting words into Craig’s mouth, but he’s getting a little bit older and maybe a bit closer to retirement,” a bullish Clarke told the Scottish Sun.
“If the worst came to the worst and there were injuries in the goalkeeper department, I know Craig would slot in fine.
“So that wouldn’t be such a big issue.
“Goalkeeper is an area where we maybe don’t have too much strength in depth and we need to have a look at different people at different times.
“In my opinion, the best way of doing that is to bring them into camp and see them first-hand.”
Clarke has piled on the misery for Gordon
The news is likely to act as a further blow to Gordon who would have been eyeing long-term returns for both club and country this time last week.
Since then, Neil Lennon has bolstered his goalkeeping ranks by bringing back Fraser Forster while Scott Bain is also still around. And the early signs for Gordon weren’t good on Sunday as he was dropped for the visit of his former employers Hearts in favour of Forster.
The veteran goalkeeper will at least play against AIK on Thursday night but the jury is out on whether he will continue between the sticks at Ibrox on Sunday.
But with Clarke calling up 34-year-old David Marshall alongside two relatively inexperienced hands in Portsmouth’s Craig MacGillivray and Sunderland’s Jon McLaughlin – his future at national team level looks all but over.
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