SINCE the turn of year, Leigh Griffiths has made 11 appearances for Celtic, scoring five times and assisting twice for his team-mates in the process. The forward has played an integral part of Neil Lennon’s switch to a 3-5-2 formation on occasion, and has formed a solid bond with striking partner Odsonne Edouard.

Rewind 12 months, and the 29-year-old was in the middle of a self-enforced break from football for personal reasons – which makes his rise to form in 2020 all the more impressive.

“It’s always nice to be back involved and it’s nice to be getting selected in the first-team squad,” said Griffiths ahead of Saturday’s league clash with St Mirren at Paradise. “When I was out last year, the only thing in my mind was getting back to this Celtic first team.

“A year ago, getting back into the first team felt like such a long way off, so the fact that I’ve got myself back involved to the degree that I have, that’s a testament to hard work. I’ve also got to give the manager, the coaching staff and my team-mates a massive thank you, because without them I wouldn’t be here.”

For Griffiths, Neil Lennon’s track record for playing two up top has helped inform his current line-ups, and the striker has enjoyed sharing the final third with Edouard in recent weeks.

Whether he’ll do the same against St Mirren tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) remains to be seen, but as long as the Scottish champions take all three points, then Griffiths will be pleased.

He added: “We take each game as it comes, and we go into each game wanting to win it. Wednesday was a slight blip, but overall, I think that was a good point in the end.

“Teams don’t like going to Livingston, they’re a big physical team, they like battling, and it’s a tough place to go to. On the night, for us it was about not losing and making sure that we picked something up. We did that, and now we want to get back to winning ways against St Mirren tomorrow.”

Leigh Griffiths reflects on year of hard work ahead of St Mirren