Boredom ends for Kelvin Wilson

Kelvin Wilson will end six months of boredom when he makes his competitive debut for Celtic away to Hibs today.

The defender was sent to football Siberia when he signed a pre-contract agreement with Celtic in January and fell straight out of Nottingham Forest’s first team picture.

Billy Davies turned down a £400,000 offer from Celtic in January preferring to let the defender rot rather than use the money to strengthen his own side’s play-off hopes.

As Davies waits for the phone to ring to return to management Wilson is focusing on justifying Neil Lennon’s faith in his former City Ground team-mate.

The defender told the Sunday Mail: “My last competitive game was for Forest away to Ipswich in early January and we won 1-0. I had to do my own thing at Forest for months after that.

“For the first four or five weeks after I signed the pre-contract with Celtic I was still with the first team but then I wasn’t.

“I wasn’t a part of things at all and had to keep myself fit. It was tougher mentally than physically. I had to go to a gym away from the club.

“I had pre-season training programmes on bits of paper from previous summers and stuck to that routine. I was just trying to get through it, ticking off the days.”

He added: “Effectively I have been through a four-month pre-season. I was only at the training ground on the odd occasion. It was like gardening leave.

“I had to motivate myself and the fact I had signed a pre-contract here drove me on. I knew I had to keep in shape so I’d arrive at Celtic in good condition.

“It was a lonely time. I’m friendly with a lot of people at Forest and a lot of people in football and I’d ring them for a chat on the Friday to ask what they were up to. They were all preparing for games and I wasn’t.

“I was bored. They’d then talk about games on a Saturday night and I hadn’t played for so long. It wasn’t easy.”

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