Kennedy ready to return for Bhoys

Celtic defender John Kennedy is convinced he will be ready for action again at the start of the next season.

The 22-year-old has not played since suffering a horrific knee injury for Scotland against Romania in March 2004.

After four operations and setbacks, the start of pre-season training cannot come quickly enough for Kennedy.

He knows he will have to take it easy at the start but he envisages being a big part of Gordon Strachan’s plans.

Kennedy told the Celtic View: “I’m looking forward to getting back into training and I’m excited about next season.

“Obviously things will take a bit of time to fall back into place and hopefully everybody will realise that, but it will be great to be back training with the rest of the boys and to get back playing in some games will be exciting for me.

“I’m going to start the first day of pre-season but I don’t intend to play in many of the matches to begin with.

“I’d imagine the team will have a few games in early July which I probably won’t be ready for. Because I’ve been out for so long I’ll need to get a good solid month of training behind me before I’ll be ready for a game.

“Hopefully I can get through the whole of pre-season without picking up any niggling injuries or anything to hold me back.

“From there on in I should hopefully be taking part in everything, games, the lot and back to normality.”