After a second day of high-intensity, warm weather training drills, Celtic manager Neil Lennon sang the praises of the club’s mid-season winter camp in Dubai.

This visit marks the Hoops’ fifth successive annual trip to the United Arab Emirates and, following the same format of recent years, the Irishman is clear on the unparalleled benefits the regime provides his players and coaching staff.

“We are sure the camp will be really important for us,” said the manager. “It is the same format as previous years, obviously with one significant difference being the protocols in place for COVID, but we hope that we get the same lift from it and can go on another great run in the New Year as we did last season, that’s our real focus just now.

“As the club said yesterday, the camp was arranged some time ago, with the full consultation of the footballing authorities and given approval by the Scottish Government. Of course, we understand that we are in very unique and difficult times and there are now even tougher restrictions in place at home, but the camp is risk assessed and arranged in conjunction with Scottish football’s Joint Response Group.

“We have put in place all the appropriate protocols and we have undertaken the camp as we see the sporting benefits from it and hope it can do for us what it has done in the past.

“From the first day of camp yesterday and into today, the boys have been working tremendously hard as we always do on a camp which has served us so well over recent seasons. And that will be the format for the rest of the week, very tough, but productive and important sessions to get us ready for the second half of the season.”

Neil Lennon hailed the state-of-the-art facilities at the elite ground, and said the same level of high intensity training cannot be replicated at this time of year in Scotland. In the wake of Saturday’s derby defeat, the manager has been delighted with the response from his players so far, and is certain they will carry that application and discipline into the latter half of the domestic campaign.

He added: “Despite the disappointment of Saturday, having dominated the game, but not getting a result we deserved, the players have responded well this week already and training has been fantastic with real intensity and verve.

“I can’t praise the players enough – from the guys who have been here every year, to the ones who are here with us for the first time – and we want to use the recent disappointment and this important week of training and put it into our matches starting with Hibs on Monday.

“We know we have not achieved the results we wanted in the first half of season and we are under no illusions that we face a really difficult task in the league, but everything we do here is geared up to try and get this back and go on a really good run.”

Manager: All of our hard work at winter camp is geared towards performance