Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MAXIE SWAIN t
FORMER Celtic wonderkid Paul George admits now is the time to start delivering on his huge promise.
The Shamrock Park new boy, just recently returned from a spell playing Down Under, has hooked up with Niall Currie’s promotion-chasing Portadown until the end of the season as he looks to resurrect a career once tipped for greatness.
Back then, when he was just 16 years of age, the silky attacker was considered the jewel in the crown at Celtic’s Lennoxtown academy.
He was the talk of Glasgow’s East End and widely regarded, alongside Somalian forward Islam Feruz, as the hottest prospect in Scotland, borne out by the fact he was fast-tracked for first team action not long after his 17th birthday.
Indeed, such was the hype around George, he even found himself the centre of an IFA-FAI tug-of-war over his eligibility, with both countries desperate to secure his loyalty.
Alas for George, the intervening years have been beset by serious setbacks, and none of his making.
The first, and cruellest, of those blows came when towards the end of his best season to date in 2011/2012 – a year in which he was crowned Scotland’s under19 player of the year – he was cut down by a challenge from Rangers youngster Lewis Macleod.
He suffered the dreaded tibia and fibula double leg break and sadly, but inevitably, has struggled to recapture that kind of form since.
Short loan spells at Hamilton Academicals and Dunfermline as he embarked on the comeback trail were similarly cursed by injury, while his eagerly-anticipated bow in Irish League football following his switch to Cliftonville in 2015 was equally frustrating.
Having just recently turned 24,
George acknowledges that he’s no longer one for the future.
It’s time to prove himself all over again – but perhaps even more so, it’s time for his luck to change.
He’s confident he’s found the right club for that to happen, however, and hopes Ports fans will be the ones to witness the re-emergence of the classy playmaker of old.
“When I was at Celtic, I had the leg break and I never really seemed to get back from it,” said George.
“Every time I tried to come back, it kept getting worse and worse.
“I went to Hamilton on loan, and I went to
Dunfermline, and the same thing kept happening, bad luck with injuries.
“When I was across the water, I just really couldn’t find my feet, so I came back here, went to Cliftonville, still couldn’t get over the injuries, went to Australia, and that was the final straw for me until now.
“I haven’t had the best of luck, but I’ve started training again and because I’ve been away for so long, I want to do everything right this time.
“I want to be dedicated and I want to try to work hard and I feel like I’m getting fitter and I feel quite sharp early on so that’s a good thing.
“I just want to get the smile back on my face when I’m playing. Obviously when I was at Celtic I had my injuries and I was going to other clubs and I wasn’t enjoying it because I wasn’t playing a lot. So I’m glad that Niall (circled) has given me this opportunity.
“After my first training session he said he wanted to sign me straight away. “I was thrown in at the deep end and everything has happened really quick. “Talking about where he sees me fitting in, he says I have got something different, a bit of creativity, and he also said it’s going to take a bit of time to get fit.
“We are working on that side of it but he is expecting me to play as a No 10. I can also play out wide but I think the No 10 striker role is what he wants from me.” Although George’s burgeoning career over in the place they call Paradise would ultimately end up unfulfilled, he still retains priceless memories from his time with his boyhood club, both on the field of play and off it, where he was taken under the wing of the Irish contingent.
“I was a Celtic fan growing up,” said George, who hails from Killough on the Co Down coast.
“When I was younger I had a lot of trials over in England, but it was actually Tommy Burns who was the head of youth and that’s what persuaded me to sign for Celtic.
“Obviously breaking my leg was a low point and that happened when I was just breaking into the first team, which was a bit of bad luck, but there were some