Clyde was the popular mascot for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games ©Getty Images

A statue of Clyde, the thistle mascot for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, has been retrieved from a garden by police in Glasgow, ending a seven-year search. 

The five-foot statue was seized from a house in the Drumchapel area of the city, belonging to Kevin McGuire.

McGuire was previously jailed for 10 months last year, in part for punching a police horse following a Scottish football match between Celtic and Airdrieonians at Celtic Park in 2019.

He was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to three police horses, assaulting two police officers and acting in a threatening and abusive manner, additionally being given a five-year ban from every football ground in the United Kingdom.

Police were made aware of the missing statue by The Scottish Sun, which reported that Clyde was in the background of a picture on McGuire's property, with a distinct marking of the Finnieston Crane on the anthropomorphic mascot's t-shirt.

McGuire reportedly denies knowing of the whereabouts of the statue.

It was one of 25 fibreglass figures commissioned when Glasgow hosted the Games seven years ago, but following the theft of the first Clyde the other 24 were removed from public spaces.

Instead, the 24 originals - plus a replacement 25th for the stolen statue - were put on display in public buildings.

Councillor Philip Braat of Scottish Labour was thankful for the return of Clyde, but questioned the actions of the alleged thief.

"I’m perplexed why someone had stolen it in the first place," Braat said, according to The Scottish Sun.

"I suppose it was a memento of the Commonwealth Games, one of the best we have ever seen, but I still can’t understand why someone would steal something that belongs to a wider community for their own benefit.

"I would hope that once the legal process has been handled, that we can come together as a city and decide what we do. 

"Do we place it with the replica where it was stolen in the first place? 

"For me personally I would perhaps like to see it go back to where it came from, back to the community where it was stolen."

A police investigation into the disappearance of Clyde is ongoing.

Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games, marking the first time Scotland had held the competition in 28 years.

Edinburgh hosted the Games in 1970 and 1986 respectively.