Anthony Stokes will hope to kickstart stalled career with move back to Hibernian

Ireland striker Anthony Stokes has been handed the opportunity to salvage what was shaping up to be a lost season.

The often controversial Celtic forward is joining Hibernian on loan until the end of the campaign, having not featured for the Hoops since August. His spell out of the first team has prompted several embarrassing social media outbursts and it appears that Celtic boss Ronny Deila has now had enough of the troublesome 27-year-old. The club had also reached a similar deal with the SPL's bottom club Dundee United, but Stokes rejected that switch in favour of moving back to Hibernian, who will hope that Stokes can help fire them to promotion from the Championship. Stokes spent the 2009-10 season with Hibs, scoring 24 times in 48 appearances, and boss Alan Stubbs is hoping to rekindle that from the Dubliner. “Anthony is a fantastic footballer and will really strengthen the squad," said Stubbs. “We have a number of options in attack and real competition for places which is what every manager wants. We are excited about Anthony coming here and I think he will prove to be a real asset.” We only hope that the prospect of regular first-team football does dim Stokes' ability to sparkle on Twitter.