Craig Gordon shows there is still mileage in his career after reaching double Celtic landmark

Everyone who was that kid in the back seat of the car willing the odometer to jump to one of the big mileage totals can understand Craig Gordon’s frustration – and trepidation – when he suffered a knee injury in Celtic’s 1-0 home victory over Hibernian on January 27. The Hoops goalkeeper was a single appearance short of not one, but two, significant career accomplishment when a collision with Hibs’ Efe Ambrose saw him limp from the field with a knee injury.

Gordon, of course, has had a painful history of such misfortune. The man who, while with Sunderland, made a save from Zat Knight of Bolton Wanderers in 2010 that was hailed as the best ever in 20 years of the Premier League, at one stage spent two seasons out of the game because of doubts about his physical condition.

After signing for Celtic in June, 2014, Gordon enjoyed a prolonged period free of serious injury and the resumption of his place as first choice for Scotland saw him acquire his 50th cap in the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia last October. The damage sustained in January, however, kept him out of Scotland’s first two games under Alex McLeish and also sidelined him as Celtic closed in on their target of a second successive clean sweep of the Scottish honours.

“I knew walking off at half-time of the Hibs game that there was something fairly seriously wrong,” Gordon said. “I wanted to try and come back out second half and they wouldn’t let me - quite rightly so.

“They saved me from myself at that point by realising at that point there was something quite serious. At the end of that game, I got stuck on 199 appearances and 99 clean sheets.”

Gordon’s absence gave opportunities to both of Celtic’s back-up keepers. Dorus de Vries took over until he, too, picked up an injury just before the Old Firm collision at Ibrox last month and Scott Bain made his club debut in the Glasgow derby cauldron to emerge as one of the Hoops' heroes in a 3-2 victory. Bain, on loan from Dundee, kept his place until Wednesday’s meeting with his parent club ruled him out of contention and opened the door for Gordon’s comeback, at which point the No. 1 reached his career targets of 200 games for Celtic and 100 shutouts.

“It was a few months waiting to get back for the two milestones and to do them both in the same game is satisfying for me,” Gordon said. “Fifty per cent clean sheet is a great record for any club in any league, so I’m proud of that.

“I’m 35 now. When these things come along, even if the worst-case scenario is that it’s career-ending, I’ve still done remarkably well to come back.

“I’ve already had what could have been the end and managed to come back from it, so when the time comes when it is the end of my career, through my choice or through an injury, it probably won’t hold as much weight as it would for someone else, because I have already been there.

“I’ve managed 200 extra games in my career and that’s just Celtic, not including internationals. It’s more than 200 from a time when I thought I wasn’t going to play another one, so whatever happens from now on is always going to be a lot easier to deal with.

“Did I think I’d play 200 games when I signed for Celtic? No.

“I was just reminded of it going up the stairs after the Dundee game when someone said to me, ‘Who would have thought you would play 200 games when you signed?’

“It’s right enough. I don’t think anyone would have thought I’d have managed to do that. I’m maybe even in the same boat in that I didn’t think it was possible.

“I’ve got a battle because both Dorus and Scott have had game-time and Scott’s had clean sheets in his last two games and a few decent performances.

“I’ll need to work hard but I was happy with my personal performance against Dundee.

“After that amount of time out, I read the game quite well and that is always something that takes a bit of time coming back.”

To return to the kid in the back seat of the car and the perennial question – ‘Are we there yet?’ – in Gordon’s case, a fair bit of mileage could yet be added before the destination is finally reached.