Celtic's Albian Ajeti has told of his determination to get back into the Hoops starting XI following an injury after working hard at Lennoxtown during the international break.

The Swiss striker stayed at home as his countrymen battled Belgium and Spain in two difficult matches, but jealousy of those earning caps never crossed his mind. Ajeti's focus was fully on improving his fitness levels for his club after picking up a knock just as he was beginning to find his feet.

He has still banged in five goals since his summer move from West Ham while, admittedly, not being fully match fit since the switch. Which is why he was somewhat relieved to remain in Glasgow to try and get up to speed.

"For me, this period is very important because it allows me to build my fitness back up," he told Celtic View. "It was the best decision for me to stay here rather than go away with the national team. I lost a couple of weeks when I was injured and I thought this was the right moment to try and get my fitness back to the level it was before the injury.

"Switzerland played a friendly against Belgium and then played Spain and Ukraine in the Nations League. We have already qualified for the Euros but we had a really tough Nations League group with Germany, Spain and Ukraine. There wasn’t a lot we could expect from those games but we did quite well.

"There’s never a great time for an injury but my injury came at a very bad time. Celtic were winning games and I was at the stage where I felt like I could push myself for 90 minutes. It was a bit of a setback but I’m happy to be back now and trying to work on my fitness.

"The training sessions during the international break have been hard sessions. We’ve been doing some long, hard runs to open up the legs and build the fitness up. There aren’t many players here but we’ve still done a lot of work with the ball.

"I hope to be back to full fitness for the Hibernian game but I’ll still need to get a full 90 minutes to know. I’ve been training really well with the staff here and I’m feeling good. The fitness will come with each game."