Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has dismissed the social media “tittle tattle” claiming striker Leigh Griffiths has gone AWOL.
Rumours spread online last night that the Scotland hitman had not been seen at the Hoops’ Lennoxtown training base since Monday.
Griffiths opted out of international duty with Scotland earlier this month, preferring to stay behind with his club and work on his fitness.
However, he was absent for Saturday’s win over Hibernian with a calf injury and was not part of the travelling party which flew to Germany for Thursday’s Europa League clash with RB Leipzig.
“It’s all social media,” said Rodgers as he met the media ahead of Sunday’s Betfred Cup semi-final against Hearts in Edinburgh.
“He hasn’t been well. He didn’t go away with the international team, then he got injured and then he has been ill for a number of days now.
“I spoke to Leigh when we trained at Murrayfield to check in how he was. He’s been ill so he’s been kept away from the squad.
“He has been connecting every day with our head physiotherapist, Tim (Williamson), and he probably gets about 20 messages a day off him, so there’s no chance you’re not connecting with Leigh.
“We just want to get him fit and back into the squad again. He’s away for some more scans today with Tim.
“So that’s just the way it is sometimes with social media. There’s always a bit of tittle-tattle which runs and takes its own life with these stories. He’s very much in contact with the club.”
A Celtic side missing a number of key players through injury suffered a 2-0 defeat to Leipzig. But while Rodgers is hopeful Tom Rogic may recover from the knee problem which saw him stay behind in Glasgow, there was more bad news ahead of Sunday’s clash with Hearts at Murrayfield after Jozo Simunovic and Christian Gamboa both limped off at the Red Bull Arena.
“(The injuries) are just what we had going into last night’s game,” he said.
“The likes of Jozo Simunovic and Christian Gamboa will go for a scan today. The players who were out before the game are probably still struggling.
“We’ll have a look at Tom Rogic to see where Tom is at. It’s just about how he reacts to what his issue was with his knee, but hopefully he has a big chance of playing.”
