LEIGH GRIFFITHS says Celtic are aiming to wrap up the Premiership title by mid-April to avoid any disruption to the campaign caused by the Coronavirus outbreak.

Scottish Football Association chief executive Ian Maxwell said this week that he was in constant contact with health experts over the ‘ever-changing situation’ presented by the spread of the virus, but that his aim was to ensure that all games went ahead as planned.

Griffiths doesn’t want Celtic to take any chances though, and has set his sights on opening up an insurmountable gap at the top of the division as quickly as possible, so that any disruption to the league doesn’t affect the destination of the title.

“It depends how early we are talking,” Griffiths said. “If it goes into the middle of April before they shut it off, then hopefully we are beyond catchable so they can’t take the league off us.

“Obviously the virus is spreading like wildfire, so we just need to concentrate on our game and make sure we are doing everything right here.

“Today we will be looking to go out against St Mirren and try and get three points. The aim is to be as ruthless as possible. That’s been the aim since we came back.

“We were in a difficult position after the winter break, but we have been relentless domestically.

“We were disappointed to drop two points in midweek at Livingston but we want to get all three against St Mirren.”

Griffiths points to Tom Rogic’s late leveller against Livingston in midweek as an indication of the hunger that Celtic have right now to ensure they get over the line as quickly as possible.

“In the context of things, it was a massive goal,” he said. “It made sure we did not lose the game.

“As a group of boys we go to the last minute and we saw after we scored the equaliser we were relentless in trying to get the winner.

“After the game we looked at results and they went in our favour.”