Lennon: Loss of man who lives to play for Celtic has altered season

It may have been the environment Joni Mitchell was talking about when she sang “you never know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.

Celtic's calamitous season would "absolutely" have been different if the fit-again James Forrest had not missed four-and-a-half months with an ankle fracture, says Neil Lennon. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

Neil Lennon would surely agree the adage could be applied to James Forrest and Celtic’s environment in this miserable campaign. The 29-year-old winger could make the squad for Sunday’s St Johnstone assignment in Perth, having been out since late September after surgery on an ankle fracture. And Lennon is unequivocal the club’s season would have been very different had they consistently been able to call on the services of a performer shamefully undervalued by the fanbase, despite his integral role across the past decade. His importance is reflected in two stats. Forrest has harvested 54 goals and 54 assists from his past 171 outings, and was lost to his club this season following 10 appearances that yielded eight wins and a draw.

“Absolutely, no question,” the Celtic manager said of the capability for a fully-fit Forrest to have put a different complexion on the club’s failed 10-in-a-row quest. “He is a top player, a top boy, he loves the club. He will have been missing playing more than anyone. He was training Monday and Tuesday, he went to see a specialist on Wednesday and we were hoping for the all-clear. [So] we may have him in the squad for the weekend.”

Lennon said “you could say that, yeah” to whether the home-grown wide man is taken for granted. On that front, it doesn’t seem to matter to the unconvinced that he is, essentially, in his testimonial season, having debuted in May 2010. Or that he has claimed 19 winners’ medals to make him one of Celtic’s most decorated individuals, racked up 405 games and scored more goals in Europe than all but nine players’ in the club’s history. Lennon knows it should.

"Any team would miss a player of that quality,” he said. “His contribution to this club has been unbelievable, magnificent, and certainly in my time since coming back. I think before the lockdown he was up on 16 goals and 22 assists and he's been doing that consistently for the best part of six or seven years. He's had a stellar career so far and I think there's a lot more to come from him.”

Forrest’s inability to play all but a bit part in a monumental title that began to slide dramatically in the aftermath of the fracture he sustained in the Europa League qualifier in Riga Riga on September 24 has cut him to his core, Lennon reveals. The weekend before his injury he had helped the club to a 3-2 victory over Livingston that secured a fifth straight league win. A sequence Lennon’s side have not, until now, come close to replicating.

“This has been a real hammer blow for him, mentally,” said the Celtic manager. “It's such a significant season and he's contributed in all the other seasons. He just loves playing football. He's one of those kids who doesn't go on social media, doesn't court public opinion, a bit like Callum McGregor. They just come in and play football, they're natural-born footballers. We have missed him around the place and certainly missed him on the pitch, so it's great to have him back."

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