The Hoops have won one of their four games since sewing up the SPL title at Kilmarnock last month and Gordon Strachan made six changes to his starting line-up giving several players who haven't featured on a regular basis this season a chance.
Hibs had the better of the first half with all of the pressure, but despite winning 11 corners, they couldn't convert any of their chances.
In the end the best chance of the half fell to Celtic's Teddy Bjarnason whose effort was tipped over the crossbar by Andrew McNeil.
It was ex-Easter Road favourtie Derek Riordan who gave the visitors the lead on 57 minutes after powering down the touchline before blasting in from what seemed an impossibly tight angle.
But Hibs pulled back into the game almost immediately as Scott Brown showed his new employers what he is capable of by heading in a Dean Shiels cross.
It was Brown's last game in a Hibs shirt after agreeing a £4.4million move to Celtic Park earlier this week.
As the game looked to be heading for a draw, Sproule came on and used his pace to shake things up.
With three minutes to go he linked up well with Merouane Zemmama before coming close to netting and then went one better a couple of minutes later.
He broke clear of his marker in injury time and fired in through the legs of Mark Brown to give Hibs victory before picking up a booking for his celebrations.