Kenny Miller tells Leigh Griffiths 'you don't pick and choose' with Scotland

Kenny Miller has questioned Leigh Griffiths for pulling out of the Scotland squad to simply focus on his fitness.

Kenny Miller has hit out at Leigh Griffiths' reasoning for pulling out of the Scotlan squad.

The Celtic star removed himself from Alex McLeish's squad earlier in the week for the upcoming double header with Israel in the Uefa Nations League and Portugal in a friendly.

The situation has prompted much debate with Celtic captain Scott Brown coming to his team-mate's defence, telling people to remember what he has done for the country, namely scoring a double against England.

Griffiths has been doing double sessions with his club but Miller believes he could have worked on his fitness and still be part of the Scotland squad.

"For me, you don't pick and choose when you play for your national team," said the Dundee forward on BBC Sportsound. "If you've got a wee injury and you need to recover, absolutely.

"But if you want to be doing extra work and getting fit I'm sure you could speak to the sport scientists, you could speak to the coaches with the Scotland team and if you want to do extra work you do the extra work that can help you get fitter.

"You don't just turn up when you will be getting the game time that you expect. You turn up to support the team if you are not playing, give the team whatever you can if you are playing.

"I can understand it, he might feel he is not quite at his best but for me you don't pick and choose when you play for your national team."

He added: "He has done very, very well in the last couple of years as the No.9 for Scotland. Nobody forgets the two goals he scored against England, fantastic.

"It was an absolutely outstanding all-round performance that day, got us the park, ran the channels, held the ball up. He was an absolute thorn in the whole of England defence's side that day and finished it off with two wonderful goals. So nobody has forgot that.

"But I can fully understand why there's a few questions being asked at the moment for this pull-out for match sharpness."

Miller queried the situation if Griffiths finds himself behind Odsonne Edouard for Celtic's games after the international break.

He said: "Say he works very, very hard for the next ten days what happens if he is not playing against Hibs, not playing against Leipzig and then he's not had the game time he would have worked very, very hard to get? What happens the next time the internationals come around and he's not up to speed with game time.

"One thing for sure is that he's not going to be guaranteed to start the Hibs game.

"Who knows what is going through Alex's mind? He might of got 90 minutes. If he is not physically right to play in that game in terms of any injury then that's fine. But getting that maybe 70-80 minutes tomorrow or Sunday, surely that's better than maybe not getting any minutes over the next 10 days."