CELTIC BOSS BRENDAN Rodgers has dismissed claims that striker Leigh Griffiths has gone AWOL, saying that the Scotland forward has been unwell recently.
Griffiths opted out of international duty earlier this month to stay at the club and work on his fitness.
He missed his side’s 4-2 win over Hibernian last weekend with a calf injury, and also didn’t travel to Germany for their Europa League clash with RB Leipzig, a game which ended in a 2-0 defeat for Celtic.
There was online speculation on Thursday that Griffiths has not been at the Hoops’ training base since Monday, but Rodgers has rubbished the rumours as “tittle-tattle”.
“It’s all social media,” Sky Sports reported him as saying ahead of Celtic’s Cup semi-final against Hearts this Sunday.
“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 added:
“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.”
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