CRAIG GORDON, the Celtic goalkeeper, has revealed he came very close to retiring last summer after spending two frustrating years on the sidelines.

Gordon, today named Scotland's Player of the Year as voted for by the Scottish Football Writers Association, has been a key performer for Ronny Deila's side this season having made a strong comeback from the serious knee injury that saw him play only one competitive match in three and a half years.

Gordon trained with Hearts, Dumbarton and Rangers in a bid to get his fitness back after being released by Sunderland in 2012 but admitted he was only weeks away from cashing in a lucrative insurance policy and agreeing never to play again before Celtic came calling. Only his determination to prove the doubters wrong kept him going and the 32 year-old is glad he resisted the temptation to call it a day.

"There were quite a few people within the game who told me that it was perhaps time to give up," he said. "I had the possibility of getting an insurance pay-out had the worst come to the worst and I kept putting that off trying to get back. It was getting very close to the time limit expiring on that policy and I had to make a decision on whether to continue trying to play or take the money and run! There wasn't long left on it as it had been a two-year thing so it was very close.

"To get the pay-out I would have had to officially retire and not play any form of professional football. The paperwork was all looked out, I had spoken to lawyers, and it was very far down the road to happening. So I turned my back on a very large sum of money to give it another go. Things could have gone wrong after that but I wanted to give myself that opportunity. In my old age if I had taken the money and not given myself that final chance I don't think that would have sat well with me."

Gordon has enjoyed a successful return to action, helping Celtic clinch a league and League Cup double. Being voted player of the year, however, tops the lot. He added: "Getting this award is unbelievable really. Coming back into football not knowing if I would even play one or two games, and then end up playing 50 games, winning two trophies and now to top it off with the player of the year award - it's beyond anything I could have ever have imagined coming back. It's incredible.

"My first thing was just to get back playing football again. I never thought it would lead here. It's been an incredibly journey. Not one I would like to do again as I'd like to stay where I am now, but it's been great to get back to this level. It was special enough the first time coming through the youth ranks and to work hard to become a professional in the first place. To go away, play one game in three years, then come back from that and do it all over again makes it more special for me. For me to get back into a team playing well enough to win trophies and awards is something that I had thought had probably passed me by."