As Shane Duffy’s tough start to life at Celtic continues, one of his positional rivals is flourishing outside of Scottish football.
Jack Hendry was loaned to Belgium’s KV Oostende at the start of the summer transfer window, having last appeared for Celtic in September 2019.
The Glaswegian spent the intervening period at Melbourne City, but played just twice before his temporary spell was cruelly cut short by injury.
After seven months without a game, Hendry was finally introduced by Oostende four matches into a campaign in which they had failed to win, suffered two defeats and kept one clean sheet.
And the 25-year-old was quick to make up for lost time, marking his debut with the only goal as the Flanders side beat KV Mechelen.
Hendry has featured in three out of four of Oostende’s subsequent fixtures, in which he has preserved his 100 per cent record and played his part in a further two clean sheets (they drew the one he missed 2-2).
The Brendan Rodgers recruit was never everyone’s cup of tea at Celtic.
But he has still only played 27 times (and often at right-back) for the Bhoys, with whom he remains under contract until the end of next season (although Oostende have an option to buy him before then).
And Hendry’s recent form poses the following question: could he have been any worse than Duffy has been for Celtic this season?
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