Leigh Griffiths has outlined the timeline of his injury process after missing Celtic’s last three matches.
Griffiths has been out with a knee injury that occurred just a day after he impressed in a substitute appearance at Easter Road. The Hoops striker helped change the game alongside Odsonne Edouard, and played a key role in the late equaliser with a brilliant corner-kick.
Since then, he’s missed the matches against Sparta Prague, Ross County, and AC Milan respectively – all three of which ended in defeat.
However, after being pictured back in training via images posted on the club’s official Twitter account, Griff looks ready to be thrown back into the mix today. And as he prepares to do so, he’s been discussing exactly what happened.
As quoted by the Scottish Sun, Griffiths said: “I was just getting into a good rhythm and getting minutes on the pitch. It happened in training on the Monday morning after the Hibs game. It just felt a wee bit sore.
“By Wednesday I couldn’t train so I had to go for a scan. Luckily it came back all clear. These little niggly injuries are frustrating especially when I haven’t been able to help the team.”
Injuries have been Griffiths’ main rivals this season
Leigh isn’t lying when he says he hasn’t been able to help the team as much as he would’ve liked this term. In fact, he missed the first 10 competitive matches due to a calf injury at the start of the season.
Since then it’s been a series of cameos, with only one start for Griff being the 3-1 home defeat to AC Milan at the start of the group stage. So far this season, the former Hibs striker has only bagged three goals – not the return he was after if you look back to the beginning of the campaign.
Looking at our last three games, the only match where he may have made a difference was Ross County. Let’s not kid ourselves, Griffiths was never going to shoot us to success in Prague or Milan. Odsonne Edouard netted in both, whilst we bagged two at the San Siro.
It didn’t matter if we had Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi up front – the fact is we conceded four once again. So long as the defence continues to play the role of the club’s official siv, it doesn’t matter who’s firing them in up the other end.
Even so, it’ll be good to have Griffiths back against St Johnstone. This reads like a fixture that would be ideal for him, although Neil Lennon still has Edouard and Albian Ajeti available to him. If necessary, Patryk Klimala is also there for selection.
Hopefully, Griff has now overcome what’s been a season of frustrating knocks for him. We need his influence just as much as he needs Celtic this season.
In other news, a former Celtic striker took a proud stance last night in a controversial incident.
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