Armstrong Oko Flex is feeling the heat of Celtic’s training camp in Austria with temperatures well into the thirties.
The teenager is experiencing first team pre-season for the first time as Neil Lennon and the medical team put the players through their paces with twice daily sessions in the sun as well as gym work.
Tonight against Pinkafeld Oko Flex should make his first team debut with yesterday’s session in the sun taking it’s toll.
He told the Celtic website:
Honestly, it’s crazy how hot it is here. It’s so hot! It’s hard to breath out there sometimes. You might not consider Austria as one of the hotter countries, I didn’t before we came, but we’re out there in heat over 30 degrees and there’s no wind.
Even a simple passing drill becomes harder when the conditions are like that, but that only makes you raise you game higher than ever. But every training session is a chance for me to show the manager what I’ve got. It’s a chance to show that I deserve to be here and I’ve got to push on.
It’s great having strong, experienced characters like the gaffer and Damien Duff on the training pitch. The gaffer is really good at encouraging us, and sometimes he expects more. If you make a loose pass, he’ll be on to you right away, which is good. He doesn’t let little things slide, which is really good, especially for us younger ones who are always learning.
After featuring on the bench last year, I’m even more hungry for it now. There’s a lot of competition in the first-team squad, which is good, and that’s even more motivation for me to work harder and show the manager that I can play for the Celtic first-team.”
There are a dozen u-21 players with the Celtic squad in Austria including 16-year-old’s Liam Morrison and Karamoko Dembele.
In previous seasons Celtic have made 11 changes at half-time in their Austrian friendlies with that policy expected to continue today.
After the match with Pinkafeld Celtic take on SC Weiner on Saturday before stopping off in Switzerland on Tuesday to take on St Gallen with everything geared towards the Champions League qualifier away to FK Sarajevo on July 9.
I like the thinking of this 'bhoy'https://t.co/FxYHKDhnKY
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) June 26, 2019
