Celtic fans were delighted to see Christopher Jullien back on the pitch once again and understandably so. The Frenchman had been out of action for over a year, struggling with a long-term injury, but made his return against Raith Rovers in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup. The defender came on for the last 15 minutes or so, in what would have been a massive boost for the Hoops.

Jullien had suffered an injury in late 2020 and an initial assessment was that the French defender would be out for around four months or so.

It is safe to say that things did not quite turn out that way and after suffering a number of setbacks in his recovery process, Jullien is finally back on a football pitch. And Celtic fans will be hoping that he is back for good.

This was his first appearance under the management of Ange Postecoglou and as reported by BBC, the manager said after the game:

“It was good to get Christopher Jullien some game time.

“He’s been working really hard. Hopefully the 20 minutes of so today will give him encouragement to go back and keep working hard.”

Postecoglou reacts to Jullien finally making his Celtic return

Jullien’s return to the pitch is a boost for Celtic in more ways than one. Firstly, on top of his game, he is a brilliant player and arguably the best defender that the club have in their ranks.

At the same time, Celtic have been a defender short through out the course of the season. Now with Jullien back though, they have four points to pick their two centre-backs from and seem much better prepared for injuries and lack of form from their players.

It will be interesting to see how Jullien does moving forward though after spending such a long time out of action due to injury.