Craig Gordon: Hearts goalkeeper targets return ‘early next season; ‘Gianluigi Buffon an inspiration’ | Football News

Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon hopes to be back in action early next season, despite suffering a double leg break on Christmas Eve.

The 40-year-old suffered the injury against Dundee United at Tannadice Park and underwent surgery 24 hours later on Christmas Day.

Gordon has been in rehab since but is targeting a speedy return for club and county, with key fixtures to come for Scotland as they bid to reach Euro 2024.

“It was Christmas Eve the injury happened, and I got taken to the hospital that night and put in a ward and my operation was the next day, so Christmas Day was my operation,” Gordon told Sky Sports’ Kris Boyd in an exclusive interview.

“I spent that up in Dundee where the injury happened, so it was difficult for the whole family, the kids, they didn’t open their Christmas presents until I came back down the road from Dundee. I think it was the 27th I got back.

“Everybody’s Christmas was a little bit ruined so I feel a bit responsible for that, but the kids were happy to see me when I did come back from the hospital, and we had our Christmas dinner about a week late.

“I’ve to go back and see the surgeon at the end of this month and I’ll get more scans taken at that point, and that will be when I’ll maybe have a little bit better idea of how quickly I can get back from this.

“I’m hoping to be back early next season. But, at the moment, I’m just pushing as hard as I can between now and then in the gym and I’ll take the advice from the doctors when I see them and then see what the possible return date after that is.”

Gordon drawing on Sunderland experience

Gordon’s career nearly came to an end 10 years ago when he was at Sunderland. The ‘keeper suffered a torn ACL and was out of the game for two years.

It was not until July 2014 that Celtic gave him a path back into football and having proved he can come back from the abyss before, he plans to do so again.

“It’s started well,” he explained of his rehabilitation. “Nine weeks in now, it’s just a case of building up the strength, doing strengthening three, four times a week, trying to get to the best possible place can, now that the bone has healed, that I’m in a fit enough place to get back.

“They had to put in a titanium nail the full length of my shinbone. It’s screwed at the top and the bottom, and that’ll stay in so that’s something that the bone will have to form round so that’ll take a good number of weeks and I’m just looking forward to – first of all, getting the movement back and then once I do that getting back into football activities after that.”

Gordon had been Hearts’ record sale when he joined Sunderland in 2007 but by 2012 knee trouble saw him fall behind Simon Mignolet in the club’s pecking order. He thought he might have had to hang up his gloves back then.

“I think at that stage,” he said. “The best thing I did was accept that that could be the end, and again that I’m in a similar situation, especially at my age. I’m under no illusions that it’s going to be difficult to come back. I’ve started well but there’s still a lot of hard work to do, and people will question whether I can get back to the same levels as before, so these are all things that I use to motivate myself.

“I did it back then in 2012 for coming back and I’ll do it again. It is a challenge. It’s not a football challenge. It’s in the gym and sometimes it’s quite a lonely place. It’s where I’ll get the strength back to give myself another opportunity to go and play again.”

‘Buffon the biggest inspiration’

Gordon impressed for Hearts this season – making 58 saves in his 16 league games before injury – and helped the Jambos up to third in the Scottish Premiership.

He was also Scotland’s number one before his season came to an end but sees Italian veteran Gianluigi Buffon as an inspiration to keep going on.

“Yeah absolutely,” Gordon said when asked by Boyd if the 45-year-old, still playing in Serie B with Parma, was an example to follow.

“He’s the biggest inspiration for anybody getting on in years to still be playing at a high level and at five years older than me, to still be playing at that level, is definitely something to aim at.

“It seems an awfully long way away at this moment in time, but you never know. I’ll try and get back playing to the best I can and see where that takes me.”