World Cup stopped Scotland star retiring as sleepless nights and nappies await
Goalkeeper charts his journey back from the brink
All the praise and admiration Craig Gordon receives for still being a contender aged 43 is richly deserved. However, it risks overlooking another extraordinary detail.
Amid everything else that is happening, the goalkeeper who is old enough to be the father of several members of the Scotland World Cup squad has recently become a father again to a son Archer, now just eight weeks old.
It’s helping keep everything else in perspective as Gordon continues to battle it out for the Scotland No 1 jersey ahead of this weekend’s World Cup opener against Haiti. At his age, Gordon should be winding down, perhaps even already safely installed in a coaching role somewhere. Instead he’s in the mix to perform on the greatest stage of all, which he contends would be the peak of an already remarkable career.
As revealed in a new BBC Scotland profile of the player, he has also endured surgery for a troublesome neck injury where the risks were set out to him in the starkest possible terms. Paralysis, perhaps even death, were possibilities, spine doctor Usamah Jannoun informed him.
Gordon admits that if it wasn’t for the World Cup, he probably would have retired by now, at the end of the season before last. Which means he would have been spared one of the greatest anguishes of his career.
Although he spent most of the season watching on from the bench or stand, he was involved in the camp as Hearts lost the league title in the final minutes of the season against Celtic last month. “The anger, the disappointment, the injustice,” he wrote on Instagram before quickly locking his account amid the barrage of comments, mainly from fans of his former club Celtic focusing on the last of the words chosen by Gordon to sum it all up.
Understandably, he couldn’t be doing with any toxicity amid the joy of becoming a father for the fifth time.
A few nappies to change
“He is just over eight weeks old now,” he revealed. “That is definitely going to keep me young for a few more years yet. There are still a few sleepless nights and a few nappies to change. No matter what happens after the World Cup I will definitely be staying young. I’ll have plenty to do…”
The wee man certainly helped process the final games of last term, as Hearts manoeuvred themselves to close to the title before coming unstuck amid chaotic scenes at Celtic Park on the final day.
“I don’t think you ever will (get over it),” he said. “It’s time to look to the World Cup now and those things will remain in the past. There’s nothing anyone can do about it.
“The feelings that everyone has are their own feelings. I’ll have them forever but it happens in football, you have to move on. We’re here at a World Cup now, the excitement levels are building so it’s now time to concentrate on that.”
Although he says in the documentary that the World Cup is “almost definitely” the end, he sounded slightly less certain when speaking to reporters at the Scotland base camp in Charlotte, North Carolina. “I’m just enjoying the moment,” he says. “It’s been a tough year to get to this point, to get myself in the position physically to be able to compete at this level. I feel as if I am there now. I feel good. We’ll see once the tournament’s finished. I’ll have a little break after that and see what happens.”
Asked specifically about retirement, he teased there might be another year. “There will come that moment, whether that’s now or whether that’s next year….” he said. “We will cross that bridge when we come to it. At the moment I’m doing everything I possibly can to be at the top level I can be at. The future will take care of itself after that.”
A lot could depend on what happens in the next couple of weeks. If Gordon is selected to play, which he says would be “the pinnacle” of a glorious career, would he interpret that as the perfect send-off or might it stir his old warrior spirit and convince him there’s more left in the tank? If he isn’t given the nod over Angus Gunn he could conclude that there’s no point carrying on and call it quits.
Manager Steve Clarke bears a heavy responsibility as he wrestles with the dilemma of which under active ‘keeper to pick. It wouldn’t be an enormous surprise if Gordon is given the gloves but Gunn was allocated the No. 1 jersey in the squad list and played the most recent warm-up match against Bolivia. Importantly, Gordon remains convinced he should be the one to replace Jim Leighton as the last goalkeeper to play a World Cup match for Scotland. Having such a strong belief in his own ability is what has sustained him during various career upheavals, including a litany of injuries that he estimates has cost him around 200 games.
If he does play, he will become the second oldest player ever to appear at the tournament. He is the oldest player in any squad at this World Cup. “Of course I want to play,” he said. “It is a bit of a triumph that I’ve managed to make it here.” Romantics are willing Clarke to give Gordon the gloves.
Sadly, as far as place in the record books is concerned, Egypt fielded a 45-year-old keeper Essam El-Hadary against Saudi Arabia at the World Cup in Russia in 2018. Goalkeepers really are a different breed.
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