Ziggy Gordon says that he isn’t letting speculation over his future affect his ability to perform to his best for Hamilton.

The right-back is in the final year of his contract, with Nottingham Forest the latest club to have been credited with an interest in taking him away from Lanarkshire.

Whilst coy over his chances of staying at the club, Gordon insists he takes rumours surrounding a possible move in his stride.

When asked if this might be his final season at New Douglas Park, he said: “I really don’t know.

“I genuinely don’t like to think about speculation, I honestly only care about the Saturday and picking up three points because it makes my week so much better.

“I can’t really say right now. The club’s obviously talking to me and we’ve got a really open relationship so we’ll constantly talk. We’ll see what happens.

“I don’t know much about the speculation, I know as much as anyone else, all I can do is work as hard as I can and hopefully my best is good enough.

“You’ve seen in the past the boys that have left and the club hasn’t stood in their way, so I’m sure it will be the same for me.

“Regardless if I stay or if I don’t, the club will be there for me and shake my hand whichever route I decide to take.

“When you’re at this club you’re always going to get speculation because of the boys who have moved on.

“We’re lucky to have a club that gives you an opportunity when you are so young, so that when you’re turning 22 or 23 you’re going to have speculation because you’ve had so many games.

“There’s a great ethos here. There’s young boys coming through that people haven’t probably seen yet and there’s a real bright future here.

“If you look at the under-20s they’re top of the league by about 4 or 5 points, and that’s not a shock to anyone at this club.

“When we all go off to pastures new there’s going to be a new brand of kids who are just as exciting, and probably better!

“Football is a simple game, if you do the work off and on the field then it will all come together, so I don’t worry about anything else.

“When the game starts I do my best and hopefully the team gets three points.”

For the moment, Gordon is relishing the opportunity to be a role model to the young players following in his stead – even though he’s only 22 himself.

He said: “Technically I think I’m a young boy, but I guess I’m a seasoned pro now! I suppose when you look about 30 then people might think you are.

“There’s lots of boys here younger than me and it makes me chuckle that I don’t really think of myself as a young boy anymore.

“Hopefully I can share my experience, because I have gained a lot of it along with the likes of Grant Gillespie and Ali Crawford.

“We’ve had the opportunities from when we were very young and we’ve learnt from the mistakes you make along the way, so we can pass that along to the younger boys.

“I hope they look at us and try to learn from us. I always try to base myself around professionalism all the time, whether that’s inside or outside of football.

“Football isn’t something that you just turn up to at 3 o’clock on a Saturday, it’s a full-time job now and you constantly have to be preparing yourself by eating well, training well, and making sure you’re doing the right things.

“Everyone looks at that here and it’s very important.”