Brendan Rodgers believes that an end of season heart-to-heart discussion with Scott Sinclair has turned the winger around.
When Celtic kicked off against Motherwell in the Scottish Cup Final Sinclair was sitting alongside Patrick Roberts and Stuart Armstrong on the bench.
Three of the heroes of the 2016/17 treble success were watching from the sidelines with Sinclair the only one to make it to Celtic’s pre-season training camp in Austria.
The former Aston Villa winger played his way out of the side last season with Callum McGregor a more than adequate replacement on the left wing.
It wouldn’t have been any surprise if Sinclair had moved on in the summer but a week before the competitive action begins Rodgers feels that the 29-year-old is ready to reproduce the form of his first season in Glasgow
“In the week leading up to the Scottish Cup final, we spoke in terms of what he had to get back to,” Rodgers explained to The Sun about Sinclair.
“We told him to clear his mind again, because he had set such high standards in his first season.
“He still did very well last season and he wants to get back to the level he was and we know he can play at.
“Scott stood out like a sore thumb in how good he was in that first season. How quick, fast and dynamic he was.”
Sinclair is expected to start the morning friendly against RW Linz today with another match scheduled for this afternoon against Sparta Prague.