NEIL Lennon is hopeful that Stephen Welsh’s ankle injury isn’t too serious despite the centre half being stretchered off in Celtic’s emphatic 4-0 win over St Mirren last night.

Welsh, 21, has established himself in the Parkhead first team in recent weeks and was excellent alongside Kristoffer Ajer at the SMISA Stadium.

But he suffered a knock after a foul by St Mirren forward Jon Obika in the second-half and was replaced by Brighton loanee Shane Duffy.

Lennon, though, is optimstic the Scotland Under-19 internationalist will be back in action for the quadruple treble winners soon.

“He got a real heavy knock, a trauma,” he said. “His foot is in a pot at the minute so it is difficult to assess the damage until the physios get a real good look at it.

“We are hoping it is just a bang on the ankle. But we will have to see if there is any damage there. He seemed okay. With the foot in the pot it kind of keeps it stable and he didn’t look to be in any distress.

“He has done very well. We have been very pleased with him and he is a good kid. Hopefully he won’t miss any games. If he does he will be back in the squad as soon as possible because he has earned it.”

Lennon was delighted with how Celtic performed in their third consecutive victory – after he had given them a half-time “whipping”.

“We scored a very good goal in the first-half, but I didn’t think we played that well,” he said. “We gave the ball away a lot with unforced errors. It was unlike us.

“I had a few words with them at half-time and we were a lot better in the second-half. I thought we were outstanding.

“It looked like the Celtic team of this time last year – rampant, full of quality, full of running and full of goals.  Coming here is always difficult but we could have won the game by five or six tonight comfortably.

“We played great. (Scott) Brown was excellent in the second-half, (Ryan) Christie looked more like himself when he came on, (Tom) Rogic was imperious and Odsonne (Edouard) and(Albian) Ajeti dovetailed well up front.

“I gave them a bit of a whipping at half-time and got the exact response I was looking for.”