Ex-Celtic midfielder aims to get back to enjoying football at East Kilbride

Former Celtic midfielder Ross McLaughlin has four weeks to prove to East Kilbride that he’s worth a contract – after landing a short term deal with the help of Hoops youth coach Darren O’Dea.

The 22-year-old was riding high at Celtic Park and was part of a team that beat rivals Rangers 3-2 to win the 2019 Glasgow Cup, but injuries plagued him at the club, including a cruciate ligament injury in 2016 that kept him out for 18 months.

McLaughlin has been out of football for a while, though he had a spell in the Lowland League with East Stirlingshire, and the playmaker has now landed at K-Park, where he hopes to earn a longer deal.

McLaughlin made his debut in the 5-3 penalty shoot-out defeat to Peterhead, after holding the League One side to a 2-2 draw in the Scottish Cup fourth round.

He said: “I’m absolutely buzzing with the move to East Kilbride – it’s just getting back in to football and I’m looking forward to getting some more game-time.

“I won the 2019 Glasgow Cup with Celtic and, looking back, it was probably one of my best moments, to be honest.

“Hopefully I can get some more experiences like that of winning cups and things like that – it was one I will always remember.

“Towards the end of my period of being with Celtic I had a couple of injuries, which set me back quite a bit, but I’m getting over them and I’m looking all right now.

“It’s really good to be back playing and I’m enjoying it.

“I’ve only trained a few times and the first game was against Peterhead there, so they’re a couple of leagues higher, but we dealt with it quite well.

“It was unfortunate in the end to go out like that, but to take a team like Peterhead all the way showed how good a group of boys we’ve got.

“We’re in a good position in the table,