IT’S official, going to watch sport is bad for your health.

The scars aren’t always physical either. Just ask any St Mirren fan who has been subjected to watching the bold Buddies in recent seasons.

They should be easy to spot, they are the ones wandering around the Piazza Shopping Centre in their slippers at 10am muttering ‘Tommy Craig’ under their breath in a zombie-like trance while shuffling about Poundland searching for a phone charger, a family bag of fruit pastilles and a TC voodoo doll.

Away from being Sleepless in a Saints shirt, history tells us being a sporting spectator comes with a fair few occupational hazards.

Just ask the fella who 21 years ago this week got an Adidas Predator in the chest as Eric Cantona did his best Bruce Lee impression.

This of course came as the red mist descended on the enigmatic Frenchman who had just been sent off against Crystal Palace, but it wasn’t helped by a few shouts of abuse from the stands.

As is often the case, history has a strange habit of repeating itself, this time in the rough and tumble world of British Elite League Ice Hockey.

On Saturday night in the lavish surroundings of Fife Ice Arena in Kirkcaldy - sarcasm alert - Manchester Storm’s Eric Neilson had his own Cantona moment.

In the 32nd minute he was involved in a bust-up with one punter sitting right behind the Manchester bench, sparked by the fan feeling the need to throw a pint of lager over the burly Canadian hard man in front of him. The next thing, the native was on the receiving end of a punch before being thrown out

Madness. Imagine wasting a pint.

Neilson has been given a three-match suspension for his part and both clubs hit with a suspended £5,000 fine. But what about the supporter?

He claimed afterwards he was just having ‘banter’ with one of Neilson’s team-mates. One can only imagine such banter.

By all accounts the incident in Fife was an accident waiting to happen. Glasgow club Braehead Clan have made several complaints to league bosses about the treatment of their coach and players on the bench, from being shouted at, physically manhandled and even spat at.

Even giving him the benefit of the doubt, it’s clear to anyone that we now live in a world where hurling abuse at people, particularly on social, media is deemed acceptable. Public figures get it, sports people get it, journalists get it, and that’s all okay.

Well it isn’t.

The internet has opened up those in the spotlight and brought them almost as close as they would be if you were sitting in the front row of a football stadium. Only, you can give someone pelters from the comfort of your mum’s back room safe in the knowledge you’re not going to get a punch in the chops.

The culture around sport, especially in Scotland, has to change. We are now breeding a mentality that it’s acceptable to verbally abuse people in sport because ‘it goes with the territory’. Just remember the vile abuse Celtic player Leigh Griffiths was exposed to on Twitter a year ago.

Without condoning physical violence, the outcry when a player reacts after being subjected to all sorts in a highly-charged environment is tinged with more than a fair share of hypocrisy.

Fife have been ordered to increase security at home games. They, and others throughout Scottish sport, would be better teaching their followers to grow up instead.

AND ANOTHER THING

Chelsea’s interest in Craig Gordon may have come out of the blue, but it was his time on the light blue treatment table that shouldn’t leave Celtic fans green if he does indeed move.

If the Stamford Bridge club come back with enough to meet the Parkhead board’s evaluation of their goalkeeper, Gordon will be faced with a major dilemma.

Let’s not forget his career was perilously close to being over as he was rehabilitated at Rangers’ Murray Park, a fact that’s led to the 34-year-old savouring every moment he pulls on the gloves.

For that reason, I think he’ll stay.

However, it’s a short career - one that was almost even shorter for Gordon - and it’s not every day arguably one of the top 10 biggest clubs in European football come calling. He could well end up with a Champions League winners’ medal around his neck next season.

His game time may be limited if he goes, but no Celtic supporter should grudge him his moment if the glove fits at Chelsea.