Martin O’Neill explains what he ‘didn’t realise’ about Stephen Welsh’s Motherwell loan that forced Celtic recall

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Martin O’Neill has opened up on the hidden rule that forced Celtic to recall Stephen Welsh from his Motherwell loan.

Welsh rejoined Celtic this week as the Parkhead club recalled the defender from his loan to provide cover for the first-team this month.

The Celtic defender was in training this week and, to be honest, Welsh looked relaxed, comfortable and happy to be back at Parkhead.

Welsh’s performances at Motherwell were excellent and the Celtic star could have been forgiven for feeling gutted at missing out on regular first-team football.

So why did Celtic recall Welsh, especially as he had been left out of Martin O’Neill’s matchday squad in the Bhoys’ win at Falkirk?

• READ MORE: The real reason Martin O’Neill benched Reo Hatate for Celtic’s win at Falkirk

Martin O’Neill explains hidden loan rule that forced Welsh’s Celtic recall

The Celtic manager was fielding questions about his decision to recall Welsh prior to the win at the Falkirk Stadium.

Speaking about Welsh’s Celtic future, O’Neill told BBC Radio Scotland, “We’ll see, if you didn’t mind tonight, it’s not really heavily in my thoughts. He’s a really good lad. He trained with us the other day. We’ll see.

“We’ll have a little look at that situation. I didn’t realise this at the time. Obviously, I’m not favoured with all of the rules, quite a few have been made up since I was last managing.

“But we had to recall otherwise, if it went past a certain date, then you couldn’t do that. Stephen has had a really great time at Motherwell.

“He’s enjoying himself immensely. And yeah, and if he ends up staying with us, then battle on to try and get into the side.”

Stephen Welsh’s omission from Celtic’s matchday squad vs Falkirk raises questions

With just over two weeks of the transfer window to go, Celtic’s starting line-up makes the decision to recall Welsh even more strange.

O’Neill named Dane Murray as the substitute centre-back for Celtic at Falkirk which seems strange, on the face of it.

Welsh is match fit and first-team ready whilst Murray last made an appearance for Celtic in the 1-0 away win at St Mirren in November.

In fact, Murray has been benched for the last 10 Celtic fixtures while Welsh has completed 12 full 90 minutes for the Steelmen.

Hopefully the defender is sent back on loan to Motherwell or is used by Celtic because it is a wasted talent and an additional salary Celtic really don’t need at this stage of the season.