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Luis Palma fired Celtic 'mountain' warning as winger should be worried about future

Celtic's Luis Palma
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Emilio Izaguirre has warned Luis Palma that he has to be willing to "climb a mountain" to get back into the Celtic starting lineup.

The Hoops winger has struggled for game time this season under Brendan Rodgers and did not impress when given an hour or so in last weekend's Premier Sports Cup clash with Falkirk at Parkhead. Speculation is already rife that the £3.5million signing could be set to depart in the January transfer window, but his Honduran countryman Izaguirre hopes Palma can get back into the good graces.

The retired left-back spent eight years total at Parkhead over two stints and knows what it takes to succeed. And he has told Palma exactly what's needed to make it in Glasgow.

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"If you are a 200 per cent professional, you have to be 1,000 per cent," Izaguirre said. "You have to learn to eat, sleep and train at 2,000 per cent because there you will find teammates who are more professional than you where you compete internally.

“Celtic are a very demanding team like their fans. If he’s not in the starting lineup, he’s missing something, they don’t leave anything out. Even in training there are cameras to see what everyone is doing.

"Something must be going on, and he should be worried because they do not spare anyone there. He is a great boy and player. Hopefully, this season, he will return to the starting lineup.

“You can’t get sick, get injured. When I got injured, they hired two left-backs. I trained and climbed a mountain to test myself, it’s a mental thing. I came back and took over the position. That’s the mentality that every athlete should have, you have to improve with hard work.”