Jonny Hayes’ move to Celtic has been given full approval by Martin O’Neill.
The former Celtic boss has brought the winger into his international plans over the last year with wide players always important to the Ireland boss.
Hayes has a job on his hands getting into the Celtic side but if he can breakthrough into Brendan Rodgers’ side his case for an international place is bound to strengthen.
“Playing under Martin O’Neill for Ireland is a big stage too and it’s to be expected that you can cope,” the former Aberdeen man told the Celtic website: “If you don’t think you can cope, for whatever reason, then you shouldn’t really be coming.
“Obviously, Martin has great affection for the club and you could see that glint in his eye when we were talking about Celtic.
“He was asking me about it pretty much every single day. I was reading about myself more in the newspapers and didn’t really know what was happening because I was away with Ireland, I was sheltered a little bit and I just wanted to try and do well with Ireland.
”The way everybody speaks about the club – I got a little bit of background information from Roy Keane and Steve Walford as well – you can tell everyone loves the club. Back home, everybody was asking me about it every day.
“As soon as Celtic were involved, no-one was asking me if I was going anywhere else. They were just asking me when I was going to Celtic and I think they knew that my mind was made up.”
Hayes will enjoy an early return to Dublin with Celtic visiting Shamrock Rovers on July 8 for a friendly.
Before that he’ll have Celtic’s pre-season trip to central Europe to impress Rodgers with Celtic taking on BW Linz, Rapid Vienna and Slavia Prague.
Following the Shamrock Rovers match the serious action kicks in with the first Champions League qualifier scheduled for July 11 away to Linfield.
This Friday the SPFL will publish their fixtures for the new season with Hayes looking out for the first Aberdeen v Celtic clash.