Celtic: Kieran Tierney praises team-mates after injury

Kieran Tierney praised his Celtic team-mates following his return from injury

Celtic defender Kieran Tierney has spoken of his relief at returning to first-team action following injury.

The 19-year-old left-back had been sidelined since October because of ankle ligament damage and a troublesome shoulder problem.

"It was like making my debut again, I had been out for so long," Tierney said of featuring in the Scottish Cup victory at Albion Rovers.

"The last two or three months have been hard work."

Speaking ahead of Sunday's trip to St Johnstone, Tierney added: "That was the first injury I had since breaking through and I felt brilliant.

"Now I am back and I am enjoying it. A lot of the times you are probably working harder than the boys who are training.

"It is game after game for them then recovering. I was working hard in the gym so yes, I feel fit. I was always going to get my shoulder done eventually, it needed doing and I was as well doing it when I had injured my ankle.

"We killed two birds with one stone there and there is nothing holding me back."

Kieran Tierney emphasised the importance of captain Scott Brown in encouraging young players at Celtic

Tierney singled out skipper Scott Brown as having the greatest influence on him at the club.

Brown recently made his 400th appearance for Celtic and Tierney hopes the midfielder adds to that tally.

"Every young guy who comes and trains, the players make them feel welcome, especially Broony," said the defender.

"The 400 games is some achievement for him and everybody around the club is really grateful for what he does.

"Broony's a legend here. We've seen that over the last 10 years and hopefully he can go on and get a lot more appearances."

With 58 games for Celtic to his name, Tierney was asked if he might emulate Brown's service to the club.

"I'm not sure, I hope so!" he said.

"For my age I've done well with appearances and I just hope it continues."