Celtic manager Neil Lennon has confirmed that he met with troubled Hoops striker Leigh Griffiths last week, who is ‘itching’ to return to first team football.
The Scotland international hasn’t featured since December after undergoing a self-imposed break from football in order to deal with some personal issues.
However, Lennon claims he is on the comeback trail: “We met on Monday,” he told the Scottish Sun. “I don’t want to talk about private things, but he’s obviously itching to get back and I’m optimistic about seeing him back before the end of the season.
“He looked okay and in reasonable condition. He’s got a bit of work to do to catch up with the rest, but that’s what we’re hoping will happen over the coming weeks. If we can get him fit and firing, we’ve got a top quality centre-forward.”
OPINION
This is a massive boost for Celtic. They’ve really missed Griffiths while he’s been out, there’s no doubt about that. His goalscoring record for the club is phenomenal and when you take that away then the team obviously suffers. Odsonne Edouard has had to shoulder the striking burden by himself for much of the season, and so it would be good for him, as well, to have Griffiths back to take some of the load off him. However, the most important thing is the well being of Griffiths. He obviously has some problems in his personal life that he needs to take care of and that is what he really needs to focus on. Football is secondary when it comes to things like this and as long as everybody bears that in mind then everything should be fine. With that said, it would be fantastic to see him back at Parkhead before the end of the season.