SCOTT SINCLAIR was in the middle of waxing lyrical about Celtic’s missing man when, as if by magic, he appeared.

A packed Glasgow airport terminal was swamped. Amid the milk-bottle white holiday makers, garishly-dressed stag parties and crying weans slumped in buggies and push chairs, a rumble began to emanate through the rabble.

With the Scottish champions’ players checking in for their flight to Trondheim, ahead of the second leg against Rosenborg in the Champions League qualifier third round, the arrival of Leigh Griffiths, who was boldly marched towards the desk by his grinning captain Scott Brown, was received with both surprise and excitement by the throng.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers is facing his biggest test as Celtic boss - the cost of failure against Rosenborg will be high

His inclusion in the travelling party is hope in itself that his presence will be felt on the park in Norway tonight. Missing from last week’s 0-0 draw due to a calf problem, the vision of the 26-year-old decked out in his Celtic training kit is the biggest morale boost Brendan Rodgers could have hoped for as he attempts to get the club’s group stage dream off the ground.

“It’s always great to see him out there. You see what he brings to the team,” said Sinclair, his voice just about audible above the noise at Griffiths’ arrival behind him. “He’s rushed back to get fit so hopefully we will see him out there and scoring goals. He’s looking sharp in training, it’s just great to have him back.

“You see what he brings to the table - he’s such a goal threat. It can be him shooting from outside the box or making runs in behind, he’s such a good striker. Most importantly we know we can score goals. We need to go out there and create chances. Hopefully we’ll control the game and grab a few.

“In football you need to adapt. We didn’t have any strikers last week and had to try a few things, we had Jamsie [Forrest] up front against Sunderland and he did unbelievably well.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers is facing his biggest test as Celtic boss - the cost of failure against Rosenborg will be high

“It’s a case where you need to get on with it. The gaffer comes up with all kinds of what if scenarios and it’s up to us to adapting and trying to play your normal game.

“It’s not just me [it helps having Griffiths back], it’s the whole team. If you have a no.9 then it helps everyone but when you lose guys like Leigh and Moussa as well then you have to adapt and make good.

“It’s going to be difficult for any team to cope with having midfielders up front but we didn’t really create as many chances as we normally do. When we go in to this game hopefully we will create more as we go along.

“I think it’s just the way he plays. He’s so unpredictable. He turns, gets his strikes off and scores goals. That’s what you want from him.”

Sinclair would have been as glad to see Griffiths check in yesterday as anyone else given he had little target to hit from out wide in the first leg last week as Tom Rogic often dropped deep.

Instead, Celtic are now expected to come out with either Griffiths – or Forrest as a back up – through the middle to provide a central attacking axis for their forward play to revolve around.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers is facing his biggest test as Celtic boss - the cost of failure against Rosenborg will be high

Sinclair believes it will be an improved Parkhead side that will take to the field tonight, but reckons the Norwegian champions will be too wise to underestimate them given last week’s showing.

“Are we confident? Yeah, definitely. Every player in the team is confident. We all believe we can go out there and get the job done to get to the next round,” said the Celtic winger.

“They won’t underestimate us. They know what we can bring.

“We expected them to go to Glasgow and sit in. They created a few chances but they didn’t cause us too many problems. It’s up to us to perform.

“I’m sure they were happy with the draw at Celtic Park but the thing is for us is that we concentrate on ourselves and I’m sure we’ll keep possession over there, create chances and hopefully get goals.

“Every player in the team is so confident. We go out there at there as a team and collectively we are confident we will get the job done and make sure we get to the next round.”

Such an early start to the campaign is something new to Sinclair.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers is facing his biggest test as Celtic boss - the cost of failure against Rosenborg will be high

Even though he has now been in Scotland for a year, the former Manchester City man was brought in by Rodgers on the day before the start of the Premiership season, meaning he missed Celtic’s early qualifiers before taking part against Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the play-off round.

Despite the importance in the season being shifted to the start rather than the end, the 28-year-old is taking it in his stride.

“It’s great to be part of this. We have had three weeks off and have been in to a decent pre-season. We are raring to go and start picking up results,” said Sinclair.

“I hadn’t played for a couple of years before I came to Celtic so it’s great on a personal level. Over the years I didn’t play it’s great that I hit form running and pick up goals along the way and winning games.

“Everyone around the club and all the fans are expecting us to go through to the next round and into the group stages.

“To be honest we were always focused on getting into the Champions League and that’s what we are looking at now.”