The Celtic youngster has impressed on Republic of Ireland duty.
Can Lee O’Connor become the latest youngster to make a Celtic breakthrough?
That’s the burning question after an impressive international break from the 19-year-old.
Hoops fans are used to see some of their young talents shine on the international stage. Most notably of late that’s been the job of French starlet Odsonne Edouard.
However, a player not yet seen in Celtic action has made significant progress of his own for his country.
Signed from Manchester United in the summer, O’Connor has been progressing within Celtic’s reserve set-up and hasn’t managed to convince Neil Lennon he is worthy of the first-team quite yet.
However, he should be pushing for that to change when he returns to Lennoxtown.
Last week he won his first senior international cap with the Republic of Ireland, no mean feat when you’ve yet to even make your club career debut.
He held his own in the friendly encounter against New Zealand, even providing a classy assist in the second half on the country’s way to a 3-1 victory. More recently he returned to U21 level where he scored in qualifying action against Sweden.
Clearly development matches are going to be no use to him in terms of career progress at Celtic.
Who’s ahead of him?
Although capable of playing at centre-back, he’s shone for Ireland at right-back recently, showing real urgency and attacking determination. Exactly the kind of thing you’d expect from a Celtic player in the position.
Unfortunately, that’s a position that is stacked at the Scottish champions, with Moritz Bauer, Hatem Abd Elhamed and the impressive Jeremie Frimpong all preferred right now.
In central defence there’s not much more room either with Christopher Jullien and Kristoffer Ajer forming a productive partnership.
A loan may be needed
With the January transfer window just around the corner, there’s even the opportunity for the 19-year-old to head out on loan if he can’t quite break into the Celtic set-up quite yet.
Getting regular games in the Scottish Premiership or English lower leagues would far better serve his Hoops career than sitting on the sidelines.
Kristoffer Ajer and Ryan Christie have both massively benefited from such moves, with the former moving for just a few short months and the latter enjoying an extended spell at Aberdeen.
He’s shown over the last seven days he is capable of playing at a capable enough level, Lennon and his coaching staff must now give him a route to regular week-to-week action whether at Celtic or elsewhere.
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