Martin O’Neill has revealed Camilo Durán spent barely an hour with his newborn baby before leaving to join Celtic in Portugal, while admitting Kasper Høgh is ‘feeling down’.

The Colombian has been in excellent form for the Hoops, scoring against Benfica before producing another outstanding performance in Sunday’s 7-1 win over Hearts.

Durán was preferred to Høgh through the middle against the Edinburgh side, and O’Neill has explained just how keen he was to play for Celtic following the birth of his child.

Is a front three of Osmand, Duran and Hassan Celtic's strongest attacking line-up now? If not, who comes in instead?

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Martin O’Neill reveals Camilo Durán’s incredible commitment to Celtic

Speaking during his post-match press conference, O’Neill revealed how little time Durán spent with his newborn before travelling to Lisbon.

O’Neill said: “And I just think that the sort of form that Camilo’s in at this moment, you know, he travelled, he was desperate to play after the birth of his child.

“I think he saw the child for about an hour and then disappeared and wanted to come to [Benfica]. So we got him there.

“So yeah, he wanted to play and I think that’s probably his best position.”

Durán scored Celtic’s consolation goal in the 4-1 defeat to Benfica before grabbing another goal and two assists in the Hearts win.

His link-up play with Callum Osmand was excellent, with the Colombian setting up both of the youngster’s goals. O’Neill clearly likes what he is seeing from Durán as a central striker, and his recent performances make a strong case for keeping him there.

Martin O’Neill admits Kasper Høgh is ‘feeling down’ at Celtic

O’Neill also addressed Høgh’s lack of goals after the Dane was left on the bench against Hearts.

The Celtic manager had already backed Høgh to score 20 goals this season and hasn’t changed his mind, despite admitting the striker’s confidence has taken a knock.

O’Neill said: “Yeah. Well, Kasper, I think I said at the little interview I did on Friday. He will score goals for us. He’s just feeling a bit down.

“He’s delighted he’s made the goal today, so that’ll give him a bit of a lift. And yeah, sometimes it happens, but he’ll just get a goal and it’ll get started again.”

Høgh did provide the assist for Benjamin Nygren’s second goal against Hearts after coming off the bench.

O’Neill added: “But Kasper’s a fighter. He wants to go and I think he will definitely score goals. Easy for me to say now, but he’ll score goals between now and the end of the season.”

Celtic face Celta Vigo on Thursday, and Høgh will be hoping for another chance to end his goal drought.

But with Durán scoring in his last two appearances, the Dane has a job on his hands getting back into O’Neill’s starting XI.