NEIL LENNON says that nobody at Celtic is writing off Leigh Griffiths as he backed the striker to get back to his best.
Griffiths will start against Cluj tonight as Celtic round-off their successful Europa League group campaign with the trip to face the Romanian champions.
The match may be a dead rubber to Lennon's side, but he has challenged the fringe players who will come into his reckoning to seize their opportunity to impress.
And while he is hoping that Griffiths in particular does just that, he says he isn't playing to save his Celtic career,
"That’s way too dramatic," Lennon said. "We are certainly not writing him off. None of those soundbites are coming from anyone inside the club.
"He’s got an opportunity to get match fitness allied to topping up his fitness work behind the scenes. He knows what he has to do so he will be really looking forward to going out there and playing, I have no doubt about that.
“His attitude has been very good, excellent. He is training away and he has been begging for the opportunity so he’s got one now. It’s not like this is a trial game for him or anything like that, we know what he can do, he just has to go out there and be free in what he does.
"He knows he’s got a bit more to do and he’s quite prepared to accept that and get on with it, as he has done.
"In the context of the season it’s a big night for him because he hasn’t played much football and there’s a good chance he will start.
"There’s no pressure on him. We know what a player he is. It’s just a question of getting as much game time into his legs as possible and him going out and enjoying himself and working hard to get something out of the game.
“There’s a hunger about him to impress all the time. He’s going to get that opportunity [on Thursday] night.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here