Maloney said: "It was a frustrating eight weeks, so it was great to get back out onto the park. It wasn't the worst injury in the world, but it was still tough.
"I was just glad to get a game. The manager spoke to me on Friday and asked how my fitness was. I think it was as good as it could have been, so he decided to give me 60 minutes.
"I wasn't too tired and I'll just need to wait and see how I get on in training this week before I know whether I can play a part against Rangers. Fingers crossed I do enough to get into the manager's plans."
Celtic secured their place in the last eight of the cup thanks to goals from Heidinbauer and Skippy. This was probably one of the worst Celtic performances I have ever had the misfortune to witness, and Queens Park definitely deserved more from the game.
"We won against Queen's Park, but we can't be happy with the way we played," said Maloney in an honest appraisal. "I don't want to sound disrespectful to them because they played their hearts out, but looking at ourselves we need to improve.
"It was a harder game than I think any of us thought it would be, to be honest. All credit to them for the way they played because they were terrific.
"They played really well and, without sounding condescending, did themselves proud in our stadium. They made it really difficult for us."
So as we look forward to the visit of Scotland's Shame on Sunday we do so with another vital player back in the squad. Maloney was a vital cog in the engine that was performing slickly in the first half of the season and here is hoping that we get to see some of that silky free-flowing soccer against the cloggers of Govan this weekend.
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt