Twelve years ago he almost called time on his career due to injuries… now, at the age of 42 and after more comebacks than Frank Sinatra, Craig Gordon looks like Scotland’s best bet to shut out Greece this weekend
Seated in front of a raft of reporters at Celtic’s training ground one afternoon, Craig Gordon told the story of how close he came to literally signing away his career.
In an office at the Stadium of Light, the insurance papers were laid out before him. There was a pen in his hand. All he had to do was etch his name on the line and it would all be over.
This was 12 years ago. He hadn’t played for Sunderland for a year and wouldn’t do so again.
At the age of 31, he’d sustained a broken arm and a serious knee injury. Physically, he looked broken beyond repair. It seemed like the right time to think of life beyond playing.
As we now know, the lid was put back on the pen and the papers were left unsigned. Despite the volume of medical evidence to the contrary, Gordon still felt like he had a chance of pulling on the gloves again. You’re a long time retired and all of that.
You wonder if that decisive moment in his life might flash through his mind as he boards the Scotland plane bound for Athens this week.
At the age of 42, Craig Gordon looks likely to start in goal for Scotland this weekend
Gordon’s career was almost ended at Sunderland amidst a serious of troublesome injuries
The absence through injury of Angus Gunn has opened the door for another Gordon comeback
A story which might well have ended when Gordon Strachan was in charge has survived the second coming of Alex McLeish and is still going strong six years after Steve Clarke took over.
A man whose career looked to be over in his early 30s is still in the mix to play in a World Cup his 43rd birthday approaches on New Year’s Eve.
The game has landed some almighty blows on him. Somehow, he keeps bouncing back up off the canvas, defying the odds and expectations.
His renaissance with Celtic was spectacular. Gordon won 12 major honours there across six seasons including three Trebles. The arrival of Dorus de Vries under Brendan Rodgers was another major challenge which he rose to and saw off.
An international career which was gathering mothballs was resurrected in that time when he faced England in November 2014, his first cap since playing against the Faroe Islands four years earlier.
A return to his spiritual home at Tynecastle always felt likely. Having re-signed for Hearts in 2020, the keeper helped his boyhood heroes win the Championship.
Gordon won five consecutive titles at Celtic as well as two Scottish Cups and five League Cups
Events took a desperate turn for the worse when he sustained a double leg fracture on Boxing Day 2022, against Dundee United.
Set to turn 40 a few days later, this felt like one blow too many. What did we know?
Just over a year later, Gordon returned in a Scottish Cup tie against Spartans.
He quickly targeted that summer’s Euros. He made a further six appearances for his club to put himself in the conversation only to be cut from the final squad along with John Souttar.
With Angus Gunn, Liam Kelly and Zander Clark heading for Germany, Scotland’s final warm-up game at Hampden game against Finland felt very much like a last hurrah.
He was presented with a jersey marking his 75th cap and given the last 21 minutes when he didn’t exactly cover himself. There was a valedictory feel to the whole thing.
Gordon conceded a late penalty against Finland on his 75th – and supposedly final – cap
‘Craig told me it was not farewell and he’d see me in the future,’ Clarke later revealed.
And there we were in Zagreb four months later discussing Scotland appearance No 76 as the three keepers who went to Germany found themselves either injured or out of favour.
‘I thought that (Finland) probably would be the last one,’ Gordon admitted at the time.
‘But football is a funny place, you just never know what’s around the corner or what’s going to happen. It’s now about taking this chance to try and stay in the team.’
A year on, it’s a similar story. Gunn is again injured and out of favour at Nottingham Forest. Kelly can’t get off Rangers’ bench. Clark’s lost his place at Hearts and with it his spot in the international squad.
Scott Bain is back in the fold six years after winning his last cap. Now with Falkirk, the 33-year-old is the only keeper in Clarke’s squad who’s getting a regular game for his club. If you were applying logic to the situation, you’d have Bain starting in Pireaus.
Gordon has become a trusted figure between the sticks for Scotland’s backline over the years
But logic left the building where Gordon is concerned many years ago. Despite suffering a neck injury and not playing for Hearts since May 3 away to Ross County, he’d still be most people’s favourite to face the Greeks.
He kept a clean sheet in the Karaiskakis Stadium back in March as Scotland won 1-0. Three of the back four that night are likely to be asked to go again on Saturday as they seek to emerge with no worse than a draw.
No disrespect to Bain, who’s a very fine keeper, but those defenders will surely feel better about themselves with a more familiar face behind them.
Having had more comebacks than Frank Sinatra, Gordon feels primed to make his 82nd Scotland appearance – a mark that would edge him ever closer to Jim Leighton’s 91.
‘Yeah, absolutely,’ he said last week. ‘That’s the manager’s call.
‘I just go there and be the best that I can be and see what happens. I can just be myself, do what I normally do, train as well as I possibly can.
Gordon celebrates Scotland’s 2007 defeat of France at Hampden in iconic fashion
‘It’s an unfortunate situation that we’re in at the moment where there’s not many goalkeepers playing first-team football.’
First things first. Even if Gordon is given the nod, Scotland have a heck of a job on their hands to get out of Greece with the point they need. You write-off an eliminated team at your peril.
Even if they get what they come for, Denmark will also make for a formidable opponent at Hampden on Tuesday in a match Scotland will almost certainly have to win if they are to automatically book a slot at the World Cup.
But this does feel like a gilt-edged opportunity to end a run of six-successive World Cup failures. This squad has delivered the required results against the same opponents in the same venues in recent times. So, they certainly have it in them.
While Gordon could do with displacing the impressive Alexander Schwolow from the Hearts team to bolster his chances of remaining involved with the national side, you would just not bet against a fairytale ending in New York or the like next summer.
Even to this point, though, the story of his career sounds like a work of fantasy.
