Celtic's Leigh Griffiths '˜likes tweets taunting Scotland team mate Steven Naismith'

Leigh Griffiths may not have been on the pitch as his Celtic side defeated Hearts 3-0 in the Betfred Cup semi-final, but the striker was still taking a keen interest in proceedings at BT Murrayfield.

Leigh Griffiths "liked" several tweets poking fun at Hearts striker and national team colleague Steven Naismith. Picture: SNS Group

The Scotland international liked several messages on Twitter, including one that read: “Hearts got pumped, someone better tweet a picture of Naismith laughing at someone”.

The 28-year-old also liked another tweet branding his national team colleague “a s***ebag.”

A Hearts fan messaged the striker asking: “You play the day?” to which Griffiths replied: “I didn’t, no, but seems as though your team didn’t either.”

In the lead-up to the Murrayfield showpiece, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers was forced to deny claims that his striker had gone AWOL, amid rumours last week that Griffiths had not been seen at the Hoops’ Lennoxtown training base since Monday.

Rodgers said: “It’s all social media. He hasn’t been well. He didn’t go away with the international team, then he got injured and then he has been ill for a number of days now.

• READ MORE - Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers rubbishes Leigh Griffiths ‘AWOL’ rumours

“I spoke to Leigh when we trained at Murrayfield to check in how he was. He’s been ill so he’s been kept away from the squad.

“He has been connecting every day with our head physiotherapist Tim (Williamson) and he probably gets about 20 messages a day off him, so there’s no chance you’re not connecting with Leigh.

“We just want to get him fit and back into the squad again. He’s away for some more scans today with Tim.

“So that’s just the way it is sometimes with social media. There’s always a bit of tittle-tattle which runs and takes its own life (with) these stories. He’s very much in contact with the club.”