Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths is ready to shine after ‘dark times’

LEIGH GRIFFITHS last night told of his ‘dark times’ in rehabilitation watching Celtic thrive in his absence.

The Hoops striker spoke after making a scoring return to action in his team’s 3-0 victory away to Hamilton Accies.

Sent on from the bench with a quarter of the match remaining, he slammed home a free-kick with what he said was his first touch of the ball.

“It is always nice to be back on the pitch,” said the 28-year-old, whose last outing was in his team’s 6-0 win against St Johnstone at the start of October.

“It has been a frustrating few weeks for me in which I have been trying to build myself back up to full fitness so to come back and score like that was great.

“It was a dark time for me. There was a lot of frustration going but you just have to get on with it, you have to do your rehab properly.

“These things happen but it didn’t help that I was ill for 10 days, that took up a chunk of my recovery time.

“There is no secret that I was a bit heavier than I would want to be but over the course of the six weeks I have managed to drop a lot of the weight and I feel a lot sharper.

“If I can continue working hard on the training pitch then when I get my chance I can take it.”

Timing is everything and with Celtic facing Rosenborg in a crucial Europa League tie on Thursday night followed by the League Cup Final three days later, the Scotland international is hoping to soon be making an even more significant contribution to the team.

“The squad is very competitive but we have a lot of games coming up and everyone is going to be involved at some point so you need to be ready to make an impact,” he said.

“We have a massive qualifying game in Rosenborg, we know how tough that is going to be.

“Hopefully we take care of that and then we have another Cup Final to take care of on Sunday.”