Craig Gordon never wanted to leave Sunderland
Oct 31 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal
CRAIG Gordon's injury-wrecked 2009 threw up plenty of questions, but whether to leave Sunderland was not one of them - thanks in part to boss Steve Bruce.
Although not yet fully recovered from a summer knee operation, the Scotland international is enjoying his first extended run in the side since injuring his ankle in the build-up to last October’s Wear-Tyne derby.
During that time he appeared to fall behind Márton Fülöp in the pecking order as a succession of further problems allowed the Hungarian to establish himself.
But since Fülöp suffered an injury of his own – to his heel – Gordon has grown in assurance. With both fit today, the former Hearts captain is certain to start at home to West Ham United.
Britain’s most expensive goalkeeper admits the past 12 months have been difficult. “It’s probably natural to question yourself and your body,” he said. “Things weren’t quite right. Footballers in general tend to be a bit pessimistic when it comes to those sort of things.
“I’m glad that’s behind me and everything’s fine. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been able to train fully and do other exercises to strengthen my knee, which probably isn’t 100% what it was before the operation – it will be
eventually but I’ve got to make sure I’m doing my exercises so the muscles around it are as strong as they might be. I was quite tentative in training to start with, wondering what can it deal with.
“You get back slowly but surely and with each week feel that little bit better and more confident in your body. I can play 90 minutes no problem and train day in, day out, as I have done for weeks.”
Scotland boss Craig Burley expressed his disquiet at Gordon’s situation at the start of the season, but it never reached the stage where the 26-year-old considered leaving Wearside.
“Not really,” he said. “All I had to concentrate on was getting myself ready to play. If things continued after that maybe I’d have to think about it but it wasn’t anything that had crossed my mind at that point.
“Coming back towards the end of last season, then having the operation in the summer, there wasn’t ever a time when I thought everything was in working order and I could stake a claim for a place.
“This season it took a while, longer than I thought. I got the operation with three weeks to go of last season and hoped I’d be back for pre-season. The physical side probably comes back quicker than the decision-making.”
What also helped was the way Bruce tried to keep Gordon involved. “He was really good actually,” the Scot recalled.
“He just wanted to see me play. I went on the pre-season tours to Portugal and Holland and barely trained at all. I had an injection after that tour to Holland and that pretty much cleared everything up.
“It was frustrating for him as well, he wanted to assess the whole squad and see me play to make the decisions he needed to. It was a couple of weeks into the season until I was able to train a full week and put myself in the frame for selection. Márton getting injured probably accelerated that a bit. All these things kind of fell in my lap and forced the issue.
“The manager hasn’t said I’m number one and Márton’s waiting in the wings. If I’m not doing it on the pitch, he’s every reason to change things.”
Goalkeeper is the only position Bruce does not have injuries in, with Darren Bent, Fraizer Campbell, Phil Bardsley, George McCartney, Boudewijn Zenden and John Mensah all doubts today.
