Celtic Await Martin O’Neill's Return: Shaun Maloney Updates

Shaun Maloney insists there is no pressure, no deadline and certainly no ultimatum. When Martin O’Neill feels ready, he will walk back into the Celtic dugout. Until then, the club will wait.

The 74-year-old manager, who underwent what the club have described as a “small procedure” in hospital this week, was discharged on Thursday. His assistant went to see him that evening and came away encouraged.

“It was really positive. He was in good form – loads better than he was Monday, Tuesday,” Maloney said, reflecting a visible lift in the manager’s condition. The hope at Lennoxtown is that the improvement continues over the next 48 hours.

O’Neill calls the shots

Celtic travel to Rugby Park on Sunday to face Kilmarnock, and the obvious question hangs over the build-up: will O’Neill be in the technical area?

Right now, no one at the club is putting a date on it.

“There is no timeline,” Maloney stressed. The decision sits entirely with O’Neill. The manager was present for Monday night’s 1-0 win over Dundee that opened the Scottish Premiership campaign, but the last few days have been different.

“Even for the game at the weekend, it's sort of day-to-day,” Maloney explained. “We saw him last night with regards to the preparation for the game and then he wasn't in today. I'll speak to him this afternoon and then he'll make a call for tomorrow. And then I'd imagine he'll make the call for the game at the weekend.

“But, if it's this weekend, great. If it isn't, then we'll prepare for it with that one.”

It is a typically firm, uncomplicated stance from O’Neill. He will not be hurried back for optics, even for a fixture that already carries early-season intrigue.

A strange prospect at Rugby Park

If O’Neill does stay away, Maloney will step up on the touchline. For a man who has managed Hibernian and Wigan, it is not a new role. But doing it in charge of Celtic, with O’Neill watching from afar, would feel different.

“Strange,” is the word he chose.

“We'll definitely miss him if he's not there but you also have to respect what's happened the last few days,” Maloney said. The staff know exactly what they would be without.

O’Neill, handed a one-year contract at the start of the season after steering Celtic to a league and cup Double during two caretaker spells last term, has reshaped the place in under a year. Maloney did not dress it up.

“The impact that he's had over, what was it, since October, it's been nothing short of incredible really – the things that he does with the players and the staff.”

That influence has seeped through the squad. If Sunday does come without him, Celtic will lean heavily on a strong dressing room as much as the man on the touchline.

“So we will miss him, but we'll be prepared. We've got some brilliant senior players, but we'll see. We'll let him make the call.”

Transfer noise kept at arm’s length

While speculation swirls around potential arrivals and departures, Maloney’s remit remains strictly on the training pitch. Any recruitment manoeuvres stay between O’Neill and chief executive Michael Nicholson.

Maloney does not expect fresh faces to arrive before the trip to Kilmarnock, including the widely reported interest in Oviedo’s Egyptian winger Haissem Hassan. As far as he is concerned, nothing is imminent before Sunday.

He is aware of the attention around midfielder Arne Engels and right-back Alistair Johnston, but sees no reason to plan without them.

Both are expected to be in the squad at Rugby Park, where the focus will be less on who might join or leave and more on backing up that opening-day win.

The story of the weekend, though, may not be about systems or selection. It may be about one figure on the touchline – or the absence of him. Will Martin O’Neill stride out into the rain at Rugby Park, or will Celtic’s revival, for one afternoon at least, be guided from a distance?