Celtic manager Martin O’Neill has offered a positive update regarding his health after returning to work.
The 74-year-old discussed his condition during an interview on the club’s Celtic Player channel, one week after spending a night in hospital to undergo what Celtic described as a “small procedure”.
O’Neill was absent from the touchline for Sunday’s 5-1 victory at Kilmarnock, though he did give a pre-match team talk at the squad’s hotel.
Asked how he was feeling, the former Republic of Ireland manager said: “Much better, than last week anyway. Yeah, a couple of ailments rolled into one, unfortunately, but I’m getting there, which is good news.”
O’Neill received another boost following the emphatic victory when Celtic completed the signing of Egypt winger Haissem Hassan from Real Oviedo on Wednesday evening.
The 24-year-old former France youth international impressed at the World Cup after changing national allegiances, though O’Neill revealed he had been a target for some time.
“We’d been tracking him in January time,” the former Northern Ireland international said.
“We were hoping that we’d be able to do something. Oviedo, obviously, at the bottom end of the league, were unwilling to let anybody go at that stage. Totally understandable. So, it wasn’t as if to say it was just like an afterthought for us in the last couple of weeks. Far from it.
“We have been chasing him, a number of players, in that sort of position that we feel as if they will add something to us. And he very, very much fitted the bill.
“When he gets to see the surrounds here, I just think he’ll glow. I think he will.
“People start to think about the number of things that players can’t do and I think you have to stay more in the positive of what players can do. Going past players now is a sort of a dying art, which is really almost unforgivable in football.
“That’s what fans get excited about. And actually, to tell you the truth, so do fellow players.”
Celtic will be back in action when they face Dundee United in the Scottish League Cup on Saturday.
