RONNY DEILA, the Celtic manager, believes the widespread changes he has made behind the scenes at the club has resulted in solving the injury problems of the past.

It is well known that the Norwegian was not overly impressed by some aspects of the training and fitness regimes he inherited, which were in place under the previous regime of Neil Lennon, when he first walked into the club.

Since arriving Celtic Park a little over year ago, Deila has leant heavily on his medical and sports science staff in a bid to sort out what he perceived to be deep-lying problematic issues.

As well as a change in preparation for games, the manager ordered his squad to eat lunch together at their Lennoxtown training base, banned fizzy drinks and told all his players to reduce their body fat.

Deila and his squad flew to the Azerbaijan capital of Baku on Monday afternoon, ahead of the return match with FK Qarabag, with only Charlie Mulgew an injury doubt, a huge difference to 12 months ago when several key players including captain Scott Brown were missing during the Champions League qualifiers..

And Deila believes this almost entirely clean bill of health is down to the changes he has implemented.

He said: “Everything we do with treatment and planning is to avoid stupid injuries. Charlie is maybe the first one where we’ve had an over-use injury last season. It makes it harder for me if it is (going to be) like last year.

“We didn’t talk of this last season because everyone had to play, as we had five or six players out all of the time. Now we have zero. It made it harder for me. The level in training better and everybody is getting better when they can train consistently.

“We have added people to the medical and physical side. We have also changed the way we train and prepare to train, how we have treatment and everything else. It has totally changed from last year.

“We had a lot of improvement to do there because we had way too many injuries - pulled muscles and things like that. The numbers now speak for themselves. Players are in the right way and doing the right things."

The in-form Leigh Griffths will be fine to play after coming off in the first-half against Ross County on Saturday with what Deila described as a knock.

Mulgrew is still touch and go for the vital second leg against Qarabag, Celtic go into the tie with a 1-0 lead, but his injury came during a match and not during training, which is something that Deila felt hurt the club last summer.

“If you lose your best players to injuries, that can be the difference between success and failure,” he said. “If we had Scott Brown available last season, maybe it would have been a different story for us in the Champions League.

“It is something we have done over the season. It is about getting in knowledge, about developing everybody in the right way, so everyone is thinking in the right way and the same way. It is about good planning and good treatment, to always get people ready for training and matches.”