JAMES Forrest has backed his chilled-out team mate Odsonne Edouard to ensure Celtic don't head off to Dubai on their warm-weather winter break feeling the heat from Rangers.

He can still recall how difficult not having any games for three weeks was for the Parkhead club to cope with after the 1-0 defeat to Steven Gerrard's side at Ibrox last season.

Brendan Rodgers had to field winger Mikey Johnston up front that day as Edouard wasn't fit enough to take his place in the starting line-up and only came on after an hour.

Forrest believes having the ice-cool French forward, who has scored 16 goals so far in the 2019/20 campaign, available fat Celtic Park tomorrow will help Neil Lennon's team shine.

“He’s quality and, if you ask any of the wingers and forwards at the club, they’ll tell you they really enjoy playing with him," he said. "He’s always looking for one-twos and he’ll try and slip you in if he can. He’s a real threat for us, he’s always at it in every game and I believe he’s got even better this season.

“It helps my game, having him in the team. He creates chances and, as well as being a great finisher, he’s unselfish. He set up both our goals against St Mirren on Boxing Day. You get some strikers who will always look out for themselves, but Odsonne’s got more about him, which is great for Ryan (Christie) and myself.

“Last season he was unbelievable but he’s kicked on since then – his performances in Europe have been right up there – and he’s our main threat. If we’re on the back foot, he’ll do something a lot of other players can’t to get us up the park."

Forrest added: "He’s so chilled as well. When you go into big games, the European and Rangers games, he doesn’t say much, he goes into it so laid back.

"You see it with his performances as well. It doesn’t seem to matter to him who he plays against. He always comes out and produces. That’s the sign of a big player.

"You saw it straight away in the Betfred Cup final. He missed maybe three or four games before, but came back and for 30 minutes he looked really sharp. He won the free kick for the goal and put Mikey (Johnston) through on goal.

"A lot of teams obviously will be aware of his threat. When we are on the back foot, he can produce something out of nothing. When you have players like that I think it helps the team. It takes a bit of pressure off."

Forrest is keen for Celtic to win and move eight points clear of their city rivals Rangers, who have a game against St Johnstone at home in hand, at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership table before they jet off to Dubai next week.

"Obviously last year, we went into the break having been beaten off Rangers," he said. "For weeks, everyone was still feeling it. So everyone will want to change that this year.

"Normally when you lose a game or have a bad result or performance, there’s always a game in three days and everyone always believes they can put it right. It was that waiting for three weeks for the next game.

"We obviously came back and had a really good run. That defeat was maybe a factor - it did hurt after that game. But we’ve won 11 games in the league now so we couldn’t be in better form."