The secret respect for Leigh Griffiths

Scott Robertson is confident that Leigh Griffiths is ready to step into the Celtic side for Saturday’s Glasgow derby.

The former Hibs striker has had 20 minutes of first team football since March 7 with his conditioning and attitude slaughtered by Neil Lennon during Celtic’s pre-season build up.

Signing Albian Ajeti from West Ham for £5m was another massive obstacle towards Griffiths returning to first team action but against St Johnstone he was handed an opportunity- and headed home the breakthrough goal in the 90th minute.

This week at Lennoxtown Griffiths is the only striker on the training ground. Patryk Klimala and Moi Elyounoussi are on international duty, Odsonne Edouard is in self isolation while Albian Ajeti, who hasn’t played 90 minutes in more than a year is recovering from a hamstring injury.

If Griffiths is named in the starting XI on Saturday there won’t be any concerns from his team-mates as Robertson told the Daily Record:

Nobody was surprised to see Griff back and scoring goals as few are better than him. Rangers know how good he is as he’s usually a key man for us against them.

If Griff does start then he’ll bring so much to the table. He loves nothing more than an Old Firm game as he’s shown so many times before.

Even though he’s not been involved a lot this season, he’s still been on fire in training. His finishing is probably the best I have ever seen in a team-mate, he’s unbelievable at times and I’m sure a lot of the Celtic lads would say the same thing.

As a natural finisher he’s the best in Scotland and beyond that, he’s undoubtedly one of the best in the UK, there’s few better. His natural ability just to put the ball into the back of the net is frightening.

As a young player at Celtic it’s a privilege to train with him and Rogic, Brown, Olivier Ntcham, Callum McGregor. I could name a few more. They are all brilliant to watch and learn from.

Griffiths’ last start was on March 7 when he scored a hat-trick in the 5-0 win over St Mirren.