Soccer

Celtic keeper Craig Gordon wins fitness race for Scottish Cup final against Motherwell

Craig Gordon 
Craig Gordon  Craig Gordon 

Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon has won his race to be fit for Saturday's Scottish Cup final with Motherwell.

A knee complaint has kept the Parkhead number one out since last month's 5-0 romp over Rangers, but he is now ready to reclaim his starting spot from understudy Scott Bain.

However, cup-tied defender Jack Hendry and the injured trio of Odsonne Edouard (hamstring), Nir Bitton (knee) and Jonny Hayes (broken leg) will miss the match at Hampden, while loanee Charly Musonda has returned to parent club Chelsea.

Meanwhile Dedryck Boyata knows the importance of Saturday's Scottish Cup final to Celtic but believes Motherwell could have an even bigger incentive for victory.

The Hoops are looking for an unprecedented successive domestic treble at Hampden Park against a side they beat 2-0 in the Betfred Cup final earlier in the season.

The Steelmen, for their part, are looking to win the competition for only the third time in their history and for the first time since 1991.

The 27-year-old Belgium defender, who is still in talks with the club about a contract extension, said: "We have the possibility to do the treble again which will go down in history because it has never been done before so it is something we can look forward to but we know it is not going to be easy, it is going to be very hard.

"Motherwell are going to be ready for this game, they are going to be physical.

"It is a great thing for us but it could be an even greater thing for them.

"We won the treble last season which was very difficult. We knew it would be very difficult to do exactly the same but we still have the chance to win the treble and make history and as a player you want to be part of the history.

"If we manage to do it it will be a great achievement for all of us."

After going down 2-0 to the champions in the Betfred Cup final in November, Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson is glad of another shot at glory.

He said: "There wasn't a whole lot in the game before we went down to 10 men.

"Now we're saying to the players, 'If we're going to win, then we need another five per cent from each individual'.

"You dream of these occasions and hopefully you don't freeze. We've been here before this season and dealt with it. Now we need to see this as another game we can deal with.

"For us it's not about anything other than becoming legends of the football club.

"That's a really nice pressure. To be in the situation to try to win a Scottish Cup final is fantastic.

"The boys have embraced that and I can see the belief growing day by day."

Provisional Celtic squad: Gordon, Bain, Boyata, Compper, Simunovic, Tierney, Ajer, Gamboa, Brown, Armstrong, Lustig, Ntcham, Roberts, McGregor, Rogic, Forrest, Sinclair, Griffiths, Dembele, De Vries, Kouassi, Miller, Henderson.