Douglas out of luck and out of the picture as Gordon's reputation keeps rising

Douglas's freak accident will keep him out of Scotland's important World Cup qualifying games with Belarus, on Saturday at Hampden Park, and Slovenia, which will determine if Walter Smith's side can snatch a play-off spot for the 2006 finals. It is fair to say that the best the Leicester City goalkeeper could have hoped for anyway was a seat on the bench, given the way Gordon has annexed the position in the past six months.

The tale of two keepers illustrates just how quickly a player can rise and fall. In May 2003, when Douglas walked out in the searing heat of Seville for Celtic's Uefa Cup final with Porto, Gordon was not even in the Hearts team. Now the 22-year-old from Edinburgh not only has Douglas's international place, but he could also soon have the title that slipped through Douglas's fingers last season.

Gordon has been a key contributor to Hearts' remarkable start in the Scottish Premier League. In half of their eight wins the leaders have kept a clean sheet, including last weekend's success against Rangers, in which Gordon made his 100th consecutive appearance. Today Hearts have the chance to make it nine out of nine, when they travel to Falkirk.

Poor Douglas, though, has been stalked by wretched luck just as Gordon's career has blossomed. A series of mistakes for Celtic - starting with Porto's extra-time winner in Seville and ending with a dreadful gift to Rangers last season that cost his side the title - meant Douglas was offloaded in the summer, but by then he had already lost his international place. Douglas was chosen for the first match of Smith's reign, away to Italy, but injured his groin after 30 minutes to make way for Gordon.

An impressive display by Gordon in Milan was followed by a vital shutout away to Belarus and a draw against Italy at Hampden last month, quickly eclipsed by a win over Norway in Oslo. Scotland secured eight points on Gordon's watch - it is little wonder that Smith and the rest of the country now trust the young man those at Tynecastle believe can be even better than Antti Niemi.

"I played in front of Antti for several seasons at Hearts," said Steven Pressley, the club captain who is also the heart of Scotland's defence with his Tynecastle colleague Andy Webster. "He is a top keeper, but there is no doubt in my mind that Craig can be even better." Gordon was given his big chance after Niemi's £2m move to Southampton by Craig Levein. The former manager threw him in against Bordeaux in a Uefa Cup tie in France, which Hearts won, and Gordon simply grew in stature from then on.

Yet, Hearts almost threw this most precious asset away. "I was being left on the bench for youth games," Gordon recalls. "I was almost released. I was 5ft 9in at 15 and the feeling was that I wasn't going to be big enough. I almost looked for another club; Hearts had boys who were bigger than me. I have come back stronger because of that. I grew quite quickly. Within three or four years I had stretched to 6ft 4in.

"I had no control over my growing, so I worked on technique. If I had not gained those extra inches then maybe now I would be playing Third Division football. One day Billy Brown, who was assistant to Jim Jefferies, watched me in a game just before they were going to release me. I played very well. He spoke with Jim Stewart [the former Scotland goalkeeper who was a coach at Tynecastle], who told him to get me in training with the senior keepers. Jim recommended they sign me for a couple of years just to see how I big I got." Hearts and Scotland owe a debt to Stewart's vision.

On Saturday, Gordon will earn his 12th cap. "I was nervous at first in international football," he admitted. "I was training with Barry Ferguson and Darren Fletcher and felt a wee bit in awe, but the longer you are involved the more comfortable you feel. I have just felt a realisation over the last few internationals that I can do this."