Even for Craig Gordon himself, being recalled into Steve Clarke's Scotland plans came as a surprise.

The veteran Heart of Midlothian stopper has now revealed he realised he'd play for his country again by way of a WhatsApp group chat add.

Days before the Scotland national team travelled to Germany for Euro 2024, Gordon was informed he wouldn't be among the manager's travelling compliment.

The 41-year-old instead turned out for Scotland against Finland at Hampden, coming off the bench as a second half substitute.

With that, Gordon assumed this was his international curtain call - until he was unexpectedly reintroduced to the national team group chat.

"I’ve just got two notifications — ‘left’ and then ‘re-added’ — that’s how it stands," said Gordon. 

“I didn’t know about it. I found out coming off the training field just before [the Hearts squad] left to go to the airport.

“So yeah, I didn’t expect it. I thought probably the last time I had played that would be the final game.

“But I never closed that chapter. I went away and worked hard and had a good pre-season."

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Gordon added: "All I’ve ever done is gone and worked hard to try to come back.

“And that’s what I’ve done. I’ve been able to play a good number of games in the season. I just concentrated on myself, and worked as hard as I could.

“It’s nice the opportunity has come up again."