BOUNCE BACK STRONGER

Kerr McInroy talks to the View about overcoming a long-term injury and working hard for first team football

- JOE DONNELLY

KERR McInroy doesn’t do tap-ins. That’s the tagline of a Celtic TV YouTube clip from March last year, which showcases one minute of the Academy Graduate’s penchant for spectacular strikes. Sixty seconds, 10 goals, and thousands of likes on the club’s official Instagram feed – two of which came from Scott Brown and club legend Henrik Larsson.

Born four days after the Hoops’ 6-2 demolition derby of Rangers, McInroy comes from a half-Celtic, half-Dunfermline-supporting family, and spent his formative years split between the Pars and Paradise.

At 12, he signed for Celtic at youth level from Blue Brazil Boys’ Club, and climbed the ranks with the likes of Stephen Welsh and Ewan Henderson.

By 2019, then 18-year-old McInroy was captain for Tommy McIntyre’s Reserves and trained regularly with the first team, occasionally featuring as a sub in the matchday squad.

In a Reserves clash with Motherwell in April 2019, McInroy suffered his first-ever injury – a torn anterior cruciate ligament that required surgery and ruled him out of action for almost 10 months – before the coronavirus pandemic, and subsequent national lockdown, stalled his return to football.

Now fit, raring to go and having turned out for Neil Lennon’s squad during pre-season, McInroy is desperate to work hard and pick up where he left off last year.

HENRIK AND BROONY LIKED YOUR GOAL VIDEO – THAT MUST HAVE BEEN A GOOD FEELING.