Neil Lennon has opened up on Leigh Griffiths’ nightmare season.
In March 2020 the striker scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over St Mirren and looked to be back towards his best a week ahead of a trip to Ibrox.
Before that match was played the season was suspended quickly followed by Lockdown being imposed.
Some footballers took to Social Media to show off how they adapted to the new norm to maintain fitness even though the start back date was unknown.
Clubs kept in touch with players remotely, monitoring their fitness and providing them with equipment and fitness programmes to maintain their sharpness.
Griffiths played a deserved part in the videos that accompanied Celtic being awarded the 2019/20 SPFL title but when he returned for pre-season training something had changed, drastically.
Picking up on Lennon’s interview with Radio Scotland this morning, the Daily Record reports the former Celtic boss saying:
The disappointing thing for me was that after the lockdown he came back really out of condition.
Having got back into the team after being out for so long with his own issues we got him fit, he was forming a really good partnership with Edouard.
Griffiths is an incredible goalscorer, the most naturally gifted goalscorer Scotland have had for quite a while.
He has to look at himself and get himself in the best condition. He’s only 30, he must have been sitting there yesterday going, ‘I should be out there’. I don’t know if that ship has sailed now, I really don’t know.
He has to get himself in the best condition possible and there’s no excuse not to these days because you’ve got great fitness coaches, medical staff, nutritionists and all those things.
He’s a rascal, he’s a bit different and maybe that’s what separates him from the rest. But he didn’t do himself any favours this season that’s for sure.
Griffiths will be out of contract with Celtic at the end of this month.