SCOTLAND manager Alex McLeish pointed the finger at the plastic pitch at Livingston for the reason why Celtic defender Kieran Tierney has been declared unfit for the two must win matches against Albania later today and Israel on Tuesday night.
McLeish noticed that ALL the Celtic players were suffering after reporting for Scotland duty after playing on that horrible surface and hopefully his intervention will kick-start Scottish football into banning these pitches once and for all from our top division.
Celtic send players across the world to play for their countries so presumably the likes of Boyata who played for Belgium and Rogic for Australia will also have had the same symptoms when arriving at the their international squad HQ.
These plastic pitches produce rubbish games of football. The players don’t like them, regardless of the arguments to the contrary, they do cause injuries – we have seen it with a few Celtic players and that boy Murphy from Rangers this season at Kilmarnock.
On the first point, rubbish games. The last few weeks have seen chat about the new TV deals for Scottish football. Many reckon our game is undersold. They are of course correct, but try arguing that with a TV company that has just had to watch a broadcast from Livingston.
Here’s what the Scotland manager had to say about all of this yesterday.
“Kieran had a tightness in his leg, his hamstring.
“I don’t want to criticise astroturf pitches per se, but the Celtic guys came with a bit of tightness.
“Kieran was nursing it over the week. We all thought it was due to the fact Celtic played on astroturf last week. Kieran’s seemed to linger and that’s why we had to make the decision when he flagged it up this morning.
“There was no doubt about it. You can’t mess with these things.
“Would he have been OK had he played on grass last weekend? I don’t know, but the fact is the guys were tight and there is a difference playing on astroturf, no doubt about it.
“We thought it would wear off. They get almost 48 hours to get back to normal on the training field.”
On KT being the latest player to call off from the Scotland squad, McLeish was very clear: “Kieran was bursting to play.”
We’ve a great wee story for tomorrow morning from Jim Craig which he has never told before. It’s all about Bobby Lennox who is being honoured down in his hometown of Saltcoats when his statue is unveiled tomorrow morning. This will be in addition to Jim’s usual morning diary on The Celtic Star. Well done to the team who worked so hard on the statue.
Jim’s Diary on The Celtic Star this morning – Jim Craig – Six goals for Dixie Deans as Jimmy McGrory watched…see HERE.
