Celtic confirm that Vakoun Issouf Bayo is back in training

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Vakoun Issouf Bayo’s injury problems appear to be clearing up.

Celtic posted a video on Twitter of the forward putting in some cardio work ahead of pre-season. The first-team were back at Lennoxtown to get to grips with the hard graft of preparing for the new campaign.

The Hoops are set to jet out to Austria and Switzerland next week, and Bayo looks like he’ll be joining in. Three games await Celtic when they hope over to Continental Europe, and it’s fair to say we all hope Bayo takes part. You can view the video of the Ivory Coast youngster below:

The striker suffered a ruptured hamstring in April that ruled him out for the rest of the season. Since then, the striker has only had two months to get fit ahead of pre-season. He’s unlikely to be anywhere near 100% as of yet, but it looks positive this early into preparation for the new campaign.

Can Bayo be the missing striker Lennon is craving?

Lennon said before the end of the season that his main priority in the transfer market was a striker (The Herald). And even though times may have changed those priorities, it’s unlikely Lennon has dropped the idea totally.

That could be concerning for Bayo, who will hopefully have used his time out to get used to Glasgow and the new culture. As it stands, the Ivory Coast under-20 star is already third choice. Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths are both clearly ahead of him. The last thing he needs is to get pushed back to fourth choice.

Celtic fans haven’t been able to give any sort of verdict on him as of yet. After all, he’s only played a few minutes for the club after coming on against Kilmarnock back in February. His injury robbed him of having any chance to impress Lennon last season too.

But the unknown quantity that Bayo is can easily be a positive for Celtic if he turns out good. It’s important to remember that he fired home 18 goals and bagged seven assists in 24 appearances before moving to Scotland. He was the star man at Slovakian side Dunajska Streda, so he clearly has something about him.

Now, it looks like Bayo is finally ready to kick on. Seeing him back getting some strength back into his legs is a positive considering he had a nasty hamstring injury. Celtic are likely to ease him back in, but hopefully, we get a look at him in the upcoming friendly matches during the training camp.