Fit-again Croat Simunovic would play on concrete to turn out for Lennon’s Celts
He had shunned plastic pitches prior to playing at Kilmarnock last week, but Jozo Simunovic says he would have turned out on concrete to prove his fitness after knee surgery!
The Croatian’s career has been blighted by problems with the joint, stretching back to even before his 2015 move to Celtic Park.
It is something which has been a source of frustration to managers, as well as the player himself. By the time Neil Lennon took over 11 months ago, he had been effectively frozen out.
“It felt good playing for him – although it’s always easy to put your faith in the only fit centre-half!” said Simunovic.
“I have a good relationship with the manager, we have a good connection. Bbut all the players do, he doesn’t treat anyone as special, which is good.
“There will be a time you’ll need every player and they need to be able to trust you as well.
“At the end with Brendan Rodgers it was a completely different story.
“But what can you do? I am here and I am Celtic’s player, not Brendan’s player.
“So I just kept going and I was kind of expecting a time would come that Brendan would go – in the past he had had offers.
“But now it’s a new page for me with a new manager. I’m not thinking about Brendan’s era any more.
“I had to be patient though, definitely. That was the key for me. All you can do is be ready because you never know when the chance will come.”
An early injury for Nir Bitton in the Scottish Cup tie against Partick Thistle gave Simunovic the opportunity and he followed up by volunteering for duty at Rugby Park.
“I hadn’t played on plastic since a game against Hamilton in 2017, so psychologically it was a big thing for me.
“But I’ve been out for months, so I was desperate to play. I’d have played on concrete if I had to! I had a good conversation with the manager before the game and told him I wanted to play.
“It’s been hard being away from the team, very frustrating for me, because the manager put a lot of trust in me. But these are things I cannot control.
“Now I’m back, having had the operation to clean out the knee, and I’m looking forward to some more games.”
As Simunovic admitted, this is an important season for the 25-year-old, as Celtic will have to decide in the summer whether to exercise their option to keep him for another season.
“We’ve arranged a meeting to talk about it. But I’ve been away for a while – we’ll discuss it for sure,” he said.
“But it is a not a problem for me right now, I just want to be ready to play, and we have a lot of games so I believe my chance will come.”
Celtic manager Neil Lennon was happy to confirm he wanted to tie the 25-yearold down.
“I’d like to, yeah. I think Jozo is a top player,” said Lennon.
“He did great for me at the tail end of last season. He needed the reconstructive surgery and has come through it really well.
“I’m delighted with his performances so far.”