Former Manchester United star Darren Fletcher is confident that Leigh Griffiths can be the man to be the match-winner for Celtic in the Glasgow derby should Odsonne Edouard miss out on the game, reports the Sky Sports Scotland Twitter account.
Edouard’s status for the derby is currently unknown. He is due to return to Glasgow on Friday after self-isolating in France after testing positive for Covid-19.
Griffiths has just returned to the side after more than six months out. He marked his comeback with a goal against St Johnstone.
Whilst Fletcher, who won the Champions League with Manchester United in 2008 concedes Edouard’s absence would be a ‘massive blow’, he believes that Griffiths has the ability to replace him in the side.
“He knows where the back of the net is”
“If he (Edouard) doesn’t play that’ll be a massive blow, but is it time for Leigh Griffiths to step up? He’s a big game player, he knows where the back of the net is, it might be his opportunity, injuries and things in place that he comes in and is the hero for Celtic” Fletcher said, in a video uploaded to Sky Sports Scotland’s Twitter account.
Neil Lennon will be spending plenty of time thinking what to do about his striker situation for the derby. Of course, what happens with Odsonne Edouard will dictate a lot of the manager’s thinking. However, it is probably best to suggest that he is likely not going to start the game anyway.
Hoops boss may not pick players struggling to be fit
There is also Albian Ajeti to take into account, as he works hard to recover from an injury to make the game. With doubts over those two players, who have been Celtic’s best strikers this season, Lennon might well decide to start Griffiths is he is 100% fit.
Would he last the 90 minutes? That might be doubtful. However, as Fletcher says, Griffiths is more than capable of playing a huge part in the game. That could be the case even if he only last 70 minutes, for example.
Only time will tell if Griffiths will get the nod to start the game. However, Darren Fletcher sounds confident he could make an impact on the match.
In other news, Ryan Mullen’s loan spell at Cove Rangers has ended after he picked up an injury.
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