Craig Gordon lays down strong message ahead of Hearts and Scotland glove war

The 42-year-old, who was first choice for both club and country last term, is back in full training after being sidelined since early May with a slipped disc in his neck. In his absence, Zander Clark and new German recruit Alexander Schwolow have been starting for Hearts, while Angus Gunn started Scotland’s two World Cup qualifiers against Denmark and Belarus earlier this month.

Gordon is now braced for a battle to get the gloves back at Tynecastle, where Ryan Fulton and youngsters Liam McFarlane and Harry Stone are also in the mix alongside Clark and Schwolow.

“There’s certainly a fair few goalies in the squad,” the veteran said in a club interview. “It’s good in training to share that workload with the rest of the guys. It’s an interesting situation of how all those guys are going to fit into a squad because there’s only one of us that can play and there’s going to be a number of goalies unhappy.

“We have to work hard in training and do as much as we can to try and get ourselves in the team and when we’re there, try and take that opportunity to stay there. I just need to keep training well and try and get in the manager’s thoughts to get a start, and that’s all I can do.

“Just keep doing everything I possibly can to show that I’m the one that the manager should be picking and that’s the same for all of us, so, it’s going to be good competition and we’ll see how it goes.”

Asked if a return to the Scotland squad for the remaining four games of World Cup qualification was on his radar, Gordon said: “Yeah, absolutely. We’ve made a good start with four points from the first two games so we put ourselves in a good position.

“I’d love to be back involved with that team. But, firstly, I need to make sure I’m doing well here and training well and give myself that opportunity to be selected.”