PHENOMENAL is how Neil Lennon described Jozo Simunovic’s form prior to the knee injury which ruled him out of the first half of this campaign.

Sustained during the Hoops’ 2-0 UEFA Europa League qualifier home win over AIK Stockholm in August, the towering Croatian had played all but 16 minutes in the first seven competitive games of the season – subbed for Christopher Jullien in the latter stages of their 1-1 Champions League qualifier draw with CFR Cluj in Romania earlier that month.

The knock unfortunately required surgery, but, after several months of recovery and rehab, the 25-year-old returned to action in Celtic’s 2-1 win over Partick Thistle in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup, and played a further full 90 minutes in each of the wins over Kilmarnock and Ross County.

Now fit and raring to go, Simunovic wants nothing more but to recapture the form that so impressed his boss both last season and at the beginning of the 2019/20 trail.

“Oh, man, it was great to get back out on to the pitch,” said Simunovic in an exclusive interview with this week’s Celtic View. “It definitely was. It’s been a long time, a few months, but in the end, all is good. I’m back and I’m looking forward to the next games and I’m really happy to be back now.

“When I was out injured, I was able to get back to Croatia to do some of my rehab, before returning to Glasgow to finish my recovery and then meet up with the team in Dubai at the club’s mid-season warm-weather training camp over there.”

Simunovic stressed the virtues of returning home to endure part of his rehab from a mental perspective, suggesting that having family and close friends nearby around the clock helped him recharge, refocus and avoid potential isolation and negative feelings.

Upon his return, the Hoops centre-half was delighted to link back in with his manager and team-mates, which gave him a renewed thirst to get back out the training ground and, when the time was right, the matchday pitch.

He added: “To have the chance to return home, to have everything around you which that entails – your friends, your family, your childhood memories – that’s always great from a mental point of view.

“Injuries are always so mentally-challenging, not just for me, but for any football player, so the chance to go home and be around family is a bonus in those moments. Unfortunately, the flip side of that is, it’s not a very nice occasion, being injured, but in the end, once you’re fit and ready to go again, it’s good and helps you get back into the right mind space.

“I spent a bit of time at Lennoxtown before the training camp, but Dubai is always a nice place to go to. The weather is so nice and it’s great to train and work hard in that heat.

“I spoke to Neil Lennon when I got back to Lennoxtown, we caught up with everything and it was good to check in properly with him. He’s good with the injured players, he’s always checking in over the phone, asking after us and making sure we’re kept in the loop.

“To then come back and be named straight away on the bench, that’s a great feeling as well. It was strange, because when I was sitting in the dugout just after the game had kicked off, I decided to change my boots to bigger studs, not knowing what was going to happen at that point, obviously.

“A couple of minutes after that, and I was on the pitch. To get back out there on the pitch was an even better feeling for me. It feels like a long time, but it’s always where I want to be.”

For the full interview with Jozo Simunovic, see this week’s Celtic View, out now.

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Jozo Simunovic is back in this week’s Celtic View