Brendan Rodgers draws line under Leigh Griffiths incident
Leigh Griffiths has "apologised sincerely'' for his substitution strop at Firhill on Thursday night, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers revealed.
Leigh Griffiths has "apologised sincerely'' for his substitution strop at Firhill on Thursday night, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers revealed.
The Hoops striker was far from happy with his gaffer when replaced by Scott Sinclair just after the hour mark in the 5-0 Ladbrokes Premiership win over Partick Thistle, having opened the scoring with a first-half penalty.
The Scotland attacker has played second fiddle to Moussa Dembele for most of the season and returned to the side recently due to the Frenchman's hamstring injury.
Rodgers empathised with Griffiths' frustration and stressed that he has a massive part to play at the Parkhead club while reminding him that he will not tolerate any dressing room upset.
The Northern Irishman and his skipper Scott Brown were on Friday presented with their respective Ladbrokes Premiership manager and player of the year awards at the club's Lennoxtown training complex.
Afterwards, Rodgers said: "I spoke to him this morning at length. He was fine.
"He apologised sincerely for his reaction. It wasn't the right reaction.
"It's not one that I expect and, more importantly, the rest of his team-mates expect.
"He is a really good fella, a good boy and a massive part of what I am doing here. So please don't think he is on his way out or this sort of stuff.
"It has been frustrating for him this season. He has had a multitude of injuries, sick, not able to train as much as he would like and to see the team do so well, and him not playing as much as he would have liked.
"I understand the frustration. He probably thought he was brought off because he was playing bad and it was totally the opposite.
"I thought he was excellent last night and as the only fit striker at the club I wanted to protect him, like Dedryck Boyata and like I did with the others.
"I'm now much more experienced as a manager so I can have a wee bit more empathy about what he was thinking. But at the same time it's not something we tolerate either.
"It's very important that we are a collective and everything stays in house, that's the way it's always been.
"Draw a line under it now and we move on and he will start and be ready for Hearts at the weekend.''
Rodgers also stated that "inspirational'' Brown deserved his award and claimed the midfielder's contribution to the cause of the treble-chasing Hoops was immeasurable.
The champions will be presented with the League trophy against Hearts on Sunday before they start preparing for the William Hill Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen at Hampden Park the following week.
Celtic are unbeaten in 45 domestics games since the start of the season, and against Thistle their 33rd league win moved them on to 103 points - equalling the records set by Martin O'Neill's title-winning side of 2001/02.
However, speaking of his 31-year-old skipper, who has been 10 years at Parkhead, Rodgers said: "There are some measures in football that there isn't a stat for.
"The game now has gone very statistical and very analytical but there is something you can't measure.
"You can't measure the size of someone's heart. How much courage they have.
"I've been fortunate that I've worked with very good captains, captains that have a passion for the game.
"Scott has probably had a bit of fun through the course of his career, but he has a real passion for football.
"You don't play the number of games he has, especially at a club like Celtic, if you don't have a passion for the game.
"Sometimes there is no measures.''