Paul George made a scoring return to action yesterday as Celtic’s u-20 side beat Falkirk 1-0 at Lennoxtown.
The Irishman suffered a horror leg break in April following a challenge from Lewis McLeod of Rangers that brought his development to a halt.
George is rated in the same bracket as Tony Watt and Dylan McGeouch with coach John Kennedy delighted to see the young talent back in action.
“Paul has worked hard with the medical team and sports scientists,” the Celtic coach explained. “We’ve been looking ahead to when we could give him a taste of action. He’s trained enough and was ready to play part of the game.
“He’s worked hard during his time out, he’s been looking really sharp and quick in training, when Paul gets on the ball he’s a real danger and it’s good for us to have him back.
“We want to get him fit, make sure that we look after him and I’m sure that when he gets back to full fitness he’ll be looking to push his way into the first team.
“It’s still early days with him, we don’t want to rush him back, we want him to be ready, we don’t want him to have any setbacks. At the minute he’s going well and we’ll progress him at his own time.
“We’ve got high hopes that one day he’ll be in our first team, he’s the type of player that can get fans off their seat.”
Celtic were without Joe Chalmers, Marcus Fraser and Bahrudin Atajic for yesterday’s clash with Callum Waters and Eoghan O’Connell drafted into defence.
After a goal-less first half the introduction of George in place of Jack Kirwan in the 72nd minute brought an edge to Celtic’s play with the substitute delivering the only goal of the game in the 80th minute.
Kennedy added: “We had a free-kick out wide, Paul put in a great delivery, Patrik (Twardzik) came across the eye-line of the goalie, I don’t think that he touched it, and the ball nestled in the corner of the net so we’ve given it to Paul George.
“It was all about the delivery, we’d been crying out for a good delivery and if everybody misses it it can creep in at the back post.
“We gave Paul 20 minutes at the end and he looked sharp. He’s been training well and the goal will give him a boost. He’s back in full training now and had his first taste of action which is pleasing.”
Celtic remain two points behind leaders Dundee United who won yesterday at Dunfermline but have two games in hand over the Tannadice side.
CELTIC 1-0 Falkirk (George 80)
CELTIC: Daniels: Fisher, O´Connell, Findlay, Millar; McManus, Kidd, Lindsay; Johnstone, Kirwan (George 72), P. Twardzik.
Subs not used: Hart, Waters, Donnelly, McMullan, Henderson
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Exciting times ahead with the talent we have coming through. Dylan McGeouch will force his way into the first team on a more regular basis this season, Tony Watt is currently getting the chance to show what he can do and Paul George is as good as anything we have produced and will undoubtedly break into the top side in the next 18 months.