With the fallout to Celtic's mid-season break to Dubai in full swing, Celtic's game against Hibernian almost took a backseat to the off-pitch pile-on.
When the Celtic side was announced, it was anticipated that a multitude of youngsters would be in line for their debuts given the fact that 13 of the first-team squad were unavailable due to COVID protocols.
For Irish eyes, a trio of players on the Celtic bench were the focus of attention.
Both Barry Coffey and Luca Connell are highly rated at Parkhead, yet haven't seen any first-team action. However, another highly-rated Irish youngster, Armstrong Okoflex, did make his first-team debut.
Granted, Okoflex's debut was somewhat overshadowed by eagle-eyed viewers spotting that Okoflex was wearing Airpods on the sideline before replacing Cameron Harper in the 61st minute.
Sutton seeing Okoflex with airpods in pic.twitter.com/uv9hsPNYo2
— Knoxy (@LK67__) January 11, 2021
15 players unavailable
3 of the management team unavailable
And the team being managed by the Laptop Video analysis team
Safe to say I didn’t think we would get a result so I’m happy with a point tbh...
That kid Okoflex should be punted down the road for the AirPods ✊💦
— Micky Reilly (@mickreilly67) January 11, 2021
Okoflex ten seconds fae coming on still got airpods in, why they no left in the changing room fuck sake the level we have went to recently is making amateur fitbaw look decent, embarrassing😂😂😂
— murfy (@Murphhyy_) January 11, 2021
Although the optics of the broadcast may have looked like Okoflex had them in continually, the Irish underage international was handed them by a member of the backroom staff in order to hear instructions from manager Neil Lennon, who was forced to stay at home and self-isolate.
This was confirmed by coach Gavin Strachan, who took charge of the side in Lennon's absence.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Strachan said that Lennon was speaking to Armstrong Okoflex in order to get "some messages to him before he came on the pitch."
"Everyone uses every bit of technology available to them. We used it, it's good for a young player to hear the manager's voice before he goes on the pitch."
Celtic's inexperienced charges were deadlocked with Hibernian until the 81st minute when David Turnbull curled a marvellous free-kick into the net to put the Hoops 1-0 up.
However, they couldn't hold onto the advantage, as Kevin Nisbett popped up in additional time to give Hibernian a share of the spoils.
SEE ALSO: Report: Two Former Ireland Internationals In Frame To Replace Damien Duff
