Celtic new boy Cristian Gamboa reckons neither lack of match practice, unfamiliarity with his team-mates nor jet-lag will deter him from making an impact against Rangers next month.

The 26-year-old Costa Rican barely had time to meet any of his new team-mates as he dropped into the club’s Lennoxtown training base yesterday before heading back to Central America to play in World Cup qualifiers.

And after their meetings with Haiti and Panama, as they try to stay on course for a repeat of their heroics in Brazil when they topped the pool England failed to qualify from then reached the quarter-finals, he will be back in Scotland just before the long-awaited Premiership clash of the Glasgow giants.

However, in spite of having played just three games for West Bromwich Albion in the past year, Gamboa believes he will be available to play following the 17,000 mile round trip on which he was setting off last night.

“I’ve been travelling like this for four or five years so I hope I’ll be ready because you get used to these flights, you get used to back and forth, back and forth every time,” he explained.

“I’ll be back next Thursday morning. So for me I’ll hopefully be ready, no injuries I hope, fit. I will just wait for Brendan to say if he needs me or not.

“I think I’ll be ready if he needs me. If he wants me to go on the bench or whatever he wants I’m going to have no problems.”

Gamboa claimed to have grown up with an understanding of what to expect in Scotland.

“Celtic are known back home,” he said.

“When I was a small boy, we didn’t have much television. There was only one channel, so you didn’t see matches but you hear about Celtic because they have been around for so long in Europe.

“They have been winning titles, playing in the Champions League and doing the right things.”

He consequently knows what is at stake when they meet Rangers and what sort of pressures will apply, but clearly believes his enthusiasm to get back into action can overcome the scheduling challenges he is facing over the next week and a half.

“We will see. I know it will be difficult but I want to be here just playing,” he said.

“I know there’s going to be a lot of stuff around, we’ll see what happens.”

As Gamboa made his flying visit to Lennoxtown it seemed likely that Celtic defender Jozo Simunovic had been there for the last time as he headed to Italy to undergo a medical ahead of a move to Torino.

Despite having denied he was on his way out of Glasgow, the 22-year-old jetted out to Italy to complete his move to the Serie A side where he could team up with on-loan Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart, who was paraded in Turin yesterday.

Signed by former Celtic coach Ronny Deila for a reported £5.5m just one year ago, the Croatian centre-back had been plagued by injury problems joining from Dinamo Zagreb and made just 17 appearances for the club.