Forrest in contention

MARTIN O’NEILL revealed he has been agonising over whether to pitch veteran winger James Forrest into Celtic’s starting line-up.

The 34-year-old has played a key role off the bench in helping keep Celtic in the hunt for a William Hill Premiership and Scottish Cup double.

However, Forrest has not started a league match since the home win over Falkirk in late October, with his only starts since then coming against Midtjylland in the Europa League in November and Auchinleck in the Scottish Cup in January.

“James has made a big, big impact in coming on in games and that is difficult,” O’Neill said in a club interview. “Sometimes you don’t even get to the pace of the game until the game’s too late but he has made big inroads in matches recently.

“Even at 34 years of age, he retains that little bit of zip. Now James is, I suppose, crying out to start matches but I would be naturally a bit concerned, he’s had a couple of hamstring problems in the past.

“And it’s not just that I’ve immediately dismissed that.

“Of course, it’s in my mind lots and lots of times about starting him in games and then thinking maybe he won’t last.”