johnreid 
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It is fair to say that the first-half of the season hasn’t gone like Celtic or Georgios Giakoumakis would have liked. The Greek striker joined the Hoops in the summer for a reported fee of £2.5m from VVV-Venlo, but has rarely featured due to injury.
The 27-year-old has been limited to just eight appearances for Celtic so far this season, making two starts and scoring one goal.
The goal that he scored was a good finish against St Johnstone, but so far the most notable moment of the player’s time at the club was when he missed an injury time penalty against Livingston.
Giakoumakis wasn’t able to make up for that penalty miss, as he has been out of action for the most part since then. The good news though is that the player will be back for Celtic sooner rather than later.
As reported by the Daily Record, the player has returned to training, alongside other long-term injury absentees Christopher Jullien and James Forrest. Only time will tell when Giakoumakis actually returns to the first-team, but having available as an option can only be a good thing for Ange Postecoglou.
Giakoumakis might not have had the best start to his Celtic career, but it would have been useful if he had been available whilst the Hoops have been suffering such an injury crisis up-front.
For example, if the forward had been available for last month’s goalless draw against St Mirren, the Hoops might have been able to find the back of the net, as it was the Bhoys had to play without a natural striker and dropped two valuable points as a result.
There is still plenty of time for Giakoumakis to turn around his Celtic career. He will be eager to prove the doubters wrong in the second-half of the season. If Giakoumakis can get a run of games in the team, he could start to find the back of the net on a regular basis.
It is really unfair to judge just how good a player that Giakoumakis is, as he has featured so little for the Hoops in the first-half of the season. The good news though, is that the player looks to be fit once more.
As a result, with Celtic having so many games in the second-half of the season, it seems inevitable that Giakoumakis will feature often for the Hoops for the rest of the 2021/22 campaign. Hopefully he is able to get the goals on a regular basis like he did in the Netherlands.
