Kelechi Iheanacho won over a lot of Celtic fans with his brace in the Scottish Cup semi-finals against St Mirren. The Nigerian striker was largely viewed as another transfer mistake until that point.

But with the score 2-2 going into extra-time, Celtic needed someone to step up. The momentum was with St Mirren, who had come back from being two goals down.

Iheanacho put them ahead with a brilliant header, with James Forrest deserving credit for his play as well. That opened up the floodgates for Celtic, who scored four games in a brillian six-minute run of play.

We have rarely seen this Celtic team go on those runs, if ever. One would hope this is the start of something, especially heading into the post-split fixtures in the league.

Celtic have left themselves a lot of work to do. Hearts are three points ahead of them. Rangers lead them by a couple of points as well. But with all of them set to face off against each other, that is not an insurmountable gap by any means. The Hoops just need to win their games in hand and hope for a bit of luck along the way as well.

Fortunately, they have been handed a boost going into those fixtures. Not only did Iheanacho score a couple of goals for the club but he also announced that he is fully fit to start games moving forward as well.

According to BBC Sport, Iheanacho said: "I'm sure I'm fit to start games, but obviously it's up to the manager to pick who he wants to start.

"But I'm really sure I'm perfectly okay to start games."

This was no dig at Martin O'Neill though as Iheanacho also added: "The manager has been good to everyone at the club. His management is really good - he speaks to everyone really well. Speaking with him gives me so much confidence to play as well. So it's really good."

Not starting Iheanacho might be a tactical decision as well. There is little doubt that he has a ton of quality and talent. But his fitness has not been up to the grade in recent times.

In order to maximise his impact, perhaps it is best to start Iheanacho on the bench and then bring him on as a substitute against tired legs.

That not only reduces the chances of him picking up an injury but also puts him in a position where he is perhaps more likely to score than if he had started.

Ideally, Daizen Maeda starts centrally moving forward and softens up the opposition defence with his relentless pressing. And then, Iheanacho can come on in the second half and look to take advantage of the situation.

Perhaps that is what O'Neill is trying to do with his selection and if it works out, it will look like absolute genius on his part. He is not working with a lot of quality at the moment. So, the manager needs to maximise what is available to him.

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