Defender stepping up comeback trail

Marcus Fraser will continue his comeback from injury with Scotland’s u-21 side against Hungary tonight.

Thirteen months ago the defender received the blow that every footballer dreads when he suffered a tear of his anterior cruciate ligament in an SFA Youth Cup tie against Aberdeen.

At a crucial stage in his development his career was halted as he began the long rehabilitation road at the time he would have been hoping to make in-roads into Neil Lennon’s first team plans.

Fraser made his return from injury against Galatasaray as Celtic enjoyed a break in Turkey early in the new year and came through the test unscathed playing alongside Eoghan O’Connell.

That duo have played a major role for Celtic’s u-20 side on their six match winning run with Fraser delighted to be concentrating on playing again after an eleven month absence from action.

“I’ve got six or seven games under my belt and it’s great to be back playing,” he said. “I just want to keep playing as many games as I can and try to make an impression.

“During the injury I set targets every month and that helped me through and I got a lot of help from people behind the scenes.

“Some days I felt I was ready to get back involved but you need to get pulled back a bit.

“You have to put injuries behind you, when I went in for my first tackle in training I had to go in for it as normal. You can’t have any fears about tackling, I’m a defender and need to go in and win my tackles and headers that’s what my job is.

“I played three games over ten days and came through that then came off after 45 minutes at Kilmarnock just to keep me ticking over. I need to try and make a career out of the game, I’m playing regularly again and the rest is upto me.”

Despite having half a dozen players away on international duty Celtic’s u-20 side beat Ross County 5-0 on Monday to go to the top of the table.

With Callum McGregor, Paul George, Bahrudin Atajic, Mikey Miller, Joe Chalmers and Lewis Kidd out on loan the side has taken on a new look with Fraser looking forward to being involved in a battle to win the title.

Celtic are three points clear of Sevco at the top of the table but with two games to play against the Ibrox side and a double header with third placed Hibs to come the remaining fixtures are certain to be keenly contested.

Fraser has played a major role in the last two title successes and would love to make it a personal hat-trick.

“A lot of players are out on loan to get experience but we have a job to win the title and hopefully we can do it,” the defender added.

“I’ve formed a good partnership with Eoghan (O’Connell). Hopefully we can keep things tight at the back and keep our run going.

“With so many players out on loan winning the title will be tough but we have a good strong squad and everyone knows that this club is about winning things.”

Celtic’s u-20 side are scheduled to visit Hibs next Tuesday.