Former Celtic star Kris Commons believes Leigh Griffiths is now paying the price for failing to live the life of an elite football player.
The 31-year-old's career at Parkhead is over as it remains to be seen if he will finish the season at Dundee or will find himself on the search for a new club.
Commons and Griffiths shared a Celtic dressing room between 2014 and 2017 during the Scotland striker's pomp, which included a season where he netted 40 goals under Ronny Deila's tutelage.
Those free-scoring days appear a distant memory for a player who is has been mired with flashpoints both on and off the pitch.
But Commons believes a ray of hope remains for Griffiths, who he regards as one of the finest striker he's played with.
Speaking in the Daily Mail, he said: "The fall from grace from him scoring those two goals for Scotland against England to where he is now is just remarkable.
"It's not down to bad form and not scoring. It's purely down to a lack of application Monday to Friday.
"He now can't get into a team. And, on the rare occasion he is, he's just not scoring goals.
"I shared a dressing room with him and I was close with him but not to the extent that I knew everything he was up to the minute he left Lennoxtown.
"He was the sort of guy who'd walk on to a training ground without any warm-up and start blasting balls into the net. He loved scoring goals. And as long as he was doing that in a game, it was hard to pick fault.
"With hindsight, I don't think it helped that he lived in Edinburgh and was travelling every day.
"I don't think he's ever had a settled life off the field. It all felt quite chaotic. That must have had an impact on how he was approaching his job.
"What's beyond argument is that he has achieved a lot in football. He's in the top 20 of Celtic's all-time goalscorers. He's won loads of trophies. He scored those two iconic free-kicks for his country.
"He was quick, his movement was good, he was exceptional in the air for quite a small guy. He was physical, was lethal on free-kicks, he could finish and he knew how to roll his sleeves up. He also had supreme confidence in his own ability.
"But it could have amounted to so much more. He should be in the peak of his career. Yet it feels like he's had more lives than a cat and they've now run out.
"Any time in the past that someone has had a go at him, his response was always to say he'd prove them wrong.
"He took criticism the wrong way when often it came from people who wanted him to succeed.
"He'd go on social media to prove how hard he'd been training on his own, as if he had to convince the public. Why did he have to shout louder than anyone else?
"Where his career goes from here has to be a real concern. You would have thought that when he went to Dundee he would have walked into the team, scored goals and shown enough application to make Celtic still take notice. Instead, you wonder what his next move will be.
"No matter what anyone says, I don't feel it's too late for him to still do something, even if that's not going to be at Celtic or Dundee.
"Look at Craig Gordon two years out of the game and considering a career in punditry. Since then he's won an unbeaten Treble at Celtic, been outstanding for Hearts for two seasons and could play in a World Cup just before his 40th birthday.
"Leigh could still have three years at the top level if he applies himself. The problem is that it's no longer just about his talent. Managers now feel that they can't rely on him."
