A combination of sporadic injuries and the consistency of his team-mates has robbed striker Mohamed Bangura of garnering a meaningful run of games in a Celtic jersey.

His chances took another massive hit recently when he was ruled out for the next three months of the campaign with a recurrence of the knee injury which has blighted his progress so far.

At the moment, he has amassed an unexceptional total of fourteen appearances since arriving from AIK Stockholm for an estimated £2.2 million. Nine of those came in the SPL and four in the Europa League, in addition one solitary outing in the Scottish Communities League Cup. Since his arrival, his statistics have spawned skepticism in many Celtic fans.

Bangura has, however, only actually started a game for Celtic on two occasions – against Udinese and Hearts, respectively – leaving definite scope for the benefit of the doubt.

The other games he took part in were, indeed, mostly short run-outs ranging from as long as a full half to as little as two minutes. On top of this, it must be noted, after all, that when the other strikers at the club play so well together and score goals – as Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes most certainly do – it is hard to make a significant case for anyone else to be started more often.

Regardless of this, his return from a previous knee injury initially looked promising. Good performances in bounce games on his road to recovery, including four goals in two matches during December (two each against Morton and Hibernian respectively) came before his being eased back into the first-team fold against Kilmarnock during the 2-1 victory just before the turn of the year.

This latest recurrence of the knee injury which has seemingly cursed Bangura to play no more than a bit part role at Celtic, and will reportedly keep him out of contention for three months, has coincided with manager Neil Lennon’s decision to sign another striker on loan until the end of the season: Paweł Brożek from Trabzonspor.

It may be that, even when fit again, Bangura will have to be content with the same erratic existence in the Celtic setup as before.