Sierra Leone striker, Mohamed Poborsky Bangura has vowed to overcome his nightmare start at Celtic and be a major hit in the Hoops. The frustrated hit man has endured a miserable opening to his career at the Park after his £2million move from AIK Stockholm in August.
Bangura arrived amidst fanfare but has failed to hit a single first-team goal for Neil Lennon’s title-chasers in five long months.
Injury has also hampered the 22-year-old and although he’s appeared 14 times, just two of those outings, against Udinese and Hearts have come from the start with Gary Hooper, Anthony Stokes and Georgios Samaras preferred.
Bangura, who’s been out for a couple of weeks with a knee problem, is now facing more time on the sidelines after he tweaked his right knee again in training.
The attacker will be sent to see a specialist next week to assess how long he will be missing amid fears of a lengthy lay-off.
Bangura, however, refuses to throw in the towel and is adamant he can fight his way into Lennon’s team for the championship charge.
He said: “I know that I have not been playing as often as I wanted but this has been due to some injuries. I’m happy at Celtic and I want to fight for my place. One of the problems for me is that I am used to playing regular matches and I am not doing so at the moment,” he noted, adding his optimism that, “but I remain positive that I can win a place in the team and I am positive things will work out for me at Celtic,” he assured.
Bangura is hopeful that it is just a matter of time before he fully recovers and becomes fit to start to play regularly.
Bangura was a hero at his previous club and AIK were interested in taking him back to the Swedish capital on loan this month.
Ironically, Bangura has scored four goals in two behind-closed-doors bounce games and Lennon believes he will come well.
Speaking at the weekend, the manager said: “Mo has had injuries and probably needs a bit of time. Remember, he is only 22 and I’ve got no concerns. It’s being claimed that we would want to get him out of the door, maybe on loan, but that is not the case. Like Kris Commons, he’s been restricted by injuries this season,” the manager noted.
Lennon, though, may face having to wait a little longer to get Bangura back into his set-up as he awaits the results on the jinxed striker’s trip to the specialist.
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