Martin O’Neill questioned Celtic’s physicality and talked up Hearts’ title chances hours before agreeing to return to Parkhead to take charge, along with Shaun Maloney.

The 73-year-old will be back in the Celtic Park dugout for Wednesday’s visit of Falkirk, 20 years after exiting the club, following Brendan Rodgers’ dramatic and acrimonious departure.

O’Neill’s previous arrival kick-started a period of dominance which has seen Celtic win 18 of the past 25 championships, as well as 23 cup competitions.

But the former Republic of Ireland manager returns with Hearts threatening to disrupt the dynamics of Scottish football after going eight points clear with a 3-1 win over the William Hill Premiership champions on Sunday.

The result sparked an end to a fractious last few months of Rodgers’

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