Craig Gordon: We have no problems with Boyata's Celtic return
Craig Gordon insists there has been no awkwardness around Dedryck Boyata's return to first-team training after he controversially missed Celtic's Champions League exit last week.
The Belgium defender was sent to train with the Under-20s after claiming an injury led to him missing the third qualifying round defeat at AEK Athens last Tuesday night while manager Brendan Rodgers insisted he was fit.
Boyata was back with the first team this week following a chat with the Northern Irishman and skipper Scott Brown, although the Hoops boss stressed there is a medical issue which has led to the former Manchester City stopper being absent from the trip to Lithuania for the first leg of the Europa League play-off with Suduva.
"He's been a really good player and a big part of what we've achieved over the last few seasons,'' said the Celtic goalkeeper.
"He's come back and played quickly after injuries and done everything he could for the team and been a leader, especially among the French-speaking boys in the team.
"There's a lot of good things he's brought to the club so, from a players' point of view, there's no problem in him coming back to training.
"Dedryck has been well liked in his entire time amongst the players so it was just a case of getting back to business and him coming back in and training the way he always has done.''
After disappointment in the Champions League qualifiers, Gordon is looking no further than the double-header against the Lithuanian champions.
The Scotland keeper added: "OK, we wanted to get into the Champions League group stages and we didn't manage to do that this year, but after that we still wanted to achieve success in Europe, and this is next best competition to do that.
"We feel as if we're in a good place going into this game.'