Former Scotland international Michael Stewart believes the omission of Leigh Griffiths from Celtic's squad for the Scottish League Cup final against Rangers was understandable.

Neil Lennon's Celtic side beat arch-rivals Rangers 1-0 at Hampden Park to clinch the Scottish League Cup on Sunday, with defender Christopher Jullien scoring the winner in the second half.  

 



Some Hoops fans were surprised to not see centre-forward Griffiths in the team when the squad was announced ahead of the game, especially with Odsonne Edouard not completely fit, having recovered from a knee injury.

While Celtic manager Lennon revealed Griffiths' omission was down to numbers and not fitness, former Scotland midfielder Stewart feels the decision was understandable.
 


Stewart believes Griffiths is not 100 per cent fit yet and Celtic would have had to exclude one of Tom Rogic, Olivier Ntcham, Mikey Johnston or Edouard to name the 29-year-old on the bench.



"The thing is I can understand Griffiths not being in the squad there because he is clearly not 100% fit either", Stewart said on the Ladbrokes Social Club.

"And when you looked at that bench, you had Rogic, Ntcham, Mikey Johnston, Edouard.
 

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"So who of them were you going to drop to put Leigh Griffiths on the bench? 

"Then you would have two strikers on there that weren't 100 per cent fit, so you can sort of understand why he wasn't on the bench."

Lennon has vowed to give Griffiths some much-need playing time in Celtic's Europa League group stage game against CFR Cluj on Thursday.