IT takes guts to admit when life gets a bit too much.

Most of us will bury our heads, pretend to others and ourselves that things are fine and dandy, when all you want to do is ask for help.

Leigh Griffiths is a troubled soul, which he concedes himself, and towards the end of last year, whatever was going on in the life of the Celtic player began to take over. Not good for the guy, or Celtic.

The wonder was that whether we would ever see Griffiths play football again.

And yet on Saturday, the man with over 100 Celtic goals looked sharp, fit and alert in the friendlies of friendly matches against Stade Rennais. If Griffiths can keep himself well and safe, his return to the fold immediately makes Celtic a better team.

He’s no angel. Mistakes have been made – the book will be a right good read – but that makes him a human being and there is a lot of goodwill for a man who on his day is a fantastic natural finisher. The best Celtic have had since Henrik Larsson.

Neil Lennon is the right manager for Griffiths. He knows better than anyone how to handle the football when their personal life is less than calm. And his team-mates are with him as well.

“Leigh has been brilliant since he’s been back,” said a happy Ryan Christie. “He's worked as hard as anyone trying to get himself fit again so fair play to him. He's now benefitting from that and getting his rewards because as you could see he did look very sharp today. It's only a matter of time before he starts scoring goals again too.

"We're never going to turn a player like Leigh and his goals down. You are delighted if you have a player like that in the squad and hopefully, he will kick on again. He's back training as well as ever and he's certainly not lost his finishing ability that's for sure. Come the start of the season, he will be firing on all cylinders.

"Towards the end of last season we did well to try and fill his void, but to have someone like him who can create a goal out of nothing is priceless."

It couldn’t have been easy for Griffiths to stand up before the dressing room to tell them he needed a break from it all.

For a start, he’s a bloke, and the weaker gender still finds it difficult to talk about such stuff.

“When it was announced that he was going to take a bit of time off, he let us all know,” said Christie. “And as you would expect, we were really supportive and understood it. Now that's he's back it's like he has never been gone. He certainly doesn't look like he has got any problems anymore. So I am delighted by him."

“Towards the end of last season he started training again and doing drills himself...which I always think is harder because when you are doing it with a squad of players it's always easier because you are working towards the same goal. That's him definitely back.

"It's tough. Credit to him. There's a difference between been fit and match fit. It's only when you have played a game that you really understand it. You can do doggies until the end of the day, but it's a different scenario when you start a match. Everyone's delighted to see him look so sharp."

It would be good to see Griffiths get some proper game time against FK Sarajevo on Wednesday for what is essentially a dead rubber game.

Christopher Jullien, the £7m man, might still not be quite there yet in terms of fitness. Saturday was not a day to judge him or anyone else.

Although, Lewis Morgan caught the eye. His months at Sunderland appear to have bulked him up and it’s going to be interesting to see how he goes.

With Europe now up and running, it’s difficult for any Celtic player not to look ahead to the chance of testing themselves in the Champions League group stage.

Christie had a superb European night of his own last season when Celtic beat RB Leipzig 2-1 with the Highlander setting up Odssone Edouard for his late winner.

“That was phenomenal and certainly one of the highlights for me last season,” admitted Christie. “There's a lot of boys in the dressing room who have played in the Champions League, but I've not played there yet.

"The Europa League last year was my first real taste of European football here and I loved every minute of it. That's what we are working towards and if I can go on to play Champions League football I will be delighted.

"I was around the club in Brendan's first year when we played Champions League football, but it's obviously better to be playing a part in it. Hopefully, that's what will happen.

"It was a brilliant team performance against Leipzig, and I think that was the most we worked all season and it paid off, although we rode our luck in the last ten minutes when we were hanging on a bit, but that's the kind of nights you want to be a part of at Celtic Park."