‘Starstruck’ – Celtic mainstay recalls terrifying first-team debut

Wed 21 March 2018 15:46, UK

Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney has spoken of how nervous he was when he made his first-team debut for the Hoops in 2015.

The 20-year-old replaced Emilio Izaguirre in a 2-1 win over Dundee in April 2015, and revealed that he was so stricken with anxiety that he kept giving the ball away.

“It was brilliant, I couldn’t believe it. I was starstruck,” Tierney said, as quoted by the Scottish Sun.

“My first game I gave the ball away every time I got it. I was sh***ting myself man!”

Since that inauspicious debut Tierney has went on to make the left-back position at Celtic his own and he is a mainstay of the first-team, with 48 appearances so far this season.

He missed the recent goalless draw against Motherwell with a calf injury and will also miss Scotland’s friendlies against Costa Rica and Hungary with the injury.

Football Insider verdict

It didn’t take long for Tierney to establish himself as one of the Hoops’ most important players, as he quickly replaced Izaguirre as the number one left-back at the club. Since then he has gone on to become, alongside Scott Brown, arguably the most important player at the club, and just like Brown the teams suffers badly when he doesn’t play. After signing a new six year deal earlier this season there’s no chance of Tierney leaving the club at this moment in time, but if he does eventually leave the Hoops should receive a massive transfer fee for the player, who is arguably one of the best in Britain at this moment in time.