Rangers saved my career and then I won 5 titles with Celtic but here is the real truth why I never moved to Ibrox

Daily Record

9 hours ago

The Hearts No1 admits he had to be SELFISH and look after himself despite the Light Blues hard work to get him back playing
Craig Gordon rebuilt his career with Celtic.
But it was at Rangers that the goalkeeper rebuilt his knee – and thus made the biggest save of his life.
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His playing days.
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Rangers physio Steven Walker helped him get back between the sticks in 2014 after two years out injured.
But the Hearts legend admits he had to be SELFISH and look after number one when deciding on his next move.
He would go on to lift 12 trophies including five league titles with Celtic.
Incredibly, 11 years later, Gordon's on course to break the 700 club appearances milestone and he is now on 81 Scotland caps with the 2026 World Cup still in his sights.
And he owes the majority of all that, in no small part, to Ibrox physio Walker.
A total of 41 caps and nearly 400 club appearances have come in the 11 years since his miraculous recovery from a series of knee injuries at Sunderland that looked to have ended his career.
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Gordon had three operations and underwent treatment in Barcelona and London before spending the best part of a year working with Walker.
Now, as he looks forward to his testimonial season at his beloved Jambos, Gordon said: 'I probably thought that I wouldn't play again.
'When I went into Rangers I worked with Steven and he was really good.
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'He was the guy that worked out how to get me back.
'It came through Jim Stewart, who had been a goalkeeping coach at Hearts and Scotland, and who was with Rangers at the time.
'Rangers had already rehabilitated a Norwegian guy, Thomas Kind Bendiksen, with a very similar injury.
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'I had PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) injections over in Barcelona with the guy that Pep Guardiola sends his players to.
'I had high-volume injections in London. I had all the different treatments I could possibly do to chuck everything at it.
'But if it's one person who turned it round, I would say it would be Steven. He was able to devise a programme that enabled me to build up the muscle around my knee to take the load off the tendon.
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'I just never know what would have happened without that. Once I realised there was a chance to get back, I poured everything into it to give myself that one last opportunity to get to the bottom of it.'
That was the start of a series of opportunities that have led Gordon miraculously back to the top.
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By summer 2014, more than two years after his last appearance for Sunderland, he was in a condition ready to resume his career.
Not at Rangers though. At Celtic Park where Ronny Deila handed him his big chance.
He said: 'At certain times as a footballer you've got to be a bit selfish and do the thing that's best for you.
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'And that was the best thing for me, for my career, to play at the highest level.
'Rangers were in the lower leagues at the time and took a further three years to come to the Premiership. I managed to get those three years playing in the Premiership and playing for Scotland that perhaps maybe I wouldn't have had.
'It was a difficult thing to do but sometimes you've got to do what's best.
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'Rangers already had two senior goalkeepers.
'To add another one at that stage probably wasn't financially the right thing for them to do.
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'They wanted me to play in a couple of reserve games to prove that I was fit enough to stay there.
'If I had done that then my injury insurance would have been invalid. So I just couldn't do that.
'That was the reason why that never happened.
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'I spoke to Raith Rovers. Hearts had Jamie MacDonald and didn't know if he was going to be leaving. I think Neil Alexander came in.
'Then Celtic came in. I knew I would have really good medical care there. I could give it the best possible chance to continue my rehab and try to get some games.
'There was obviously speculation about Fraser Forster so there was a little chink of light – him potentially moving on.
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'It all fell into place at exactly the right time.
'I managed to play 50 games my first season back after not playing for two years.
'I didn't know it was possible until I managed to do it.'