Few players were a greater example of the magic that was Brendan Rodgers’ arrival at Parkhead than defender Dedryck Boyata. He went from buried on the bench to every-match starter in less than a season.
However, it appears his 2017-18 campaign is off to a brutal start. Boyata pulled out of the latest preseason friendly against Slavia Prague with what appeared to be a leg injury.
Now it is being reported that Boyata will miss at least three months with a medial knee injury.
The news was confirmed by Celtic assistant Chris Davies, per SportMobile:
“Unfortunately for Dedryck, it looks like he is going out to be out for a few months with a medial knee ligament injury,” said Davies.
"“It’s really disappointing for Dedryck. He did really well for us for the last six months of last season and was in good form. We are all disappointed for him, but no doubt he will do the work he has to do in rehab and come back even stronger and better.“The timeline that the medical team are looking at is up to three months but we are always optimistic and we will see what we can do.”"
The injury happened late in the first half of the match this past Saturday. Boyata was clattered in to and immediately went down. After a few minutes on the ground, Boyata attempted to give it a go. However, he was not able to put weight on his leg and was removed from the match.
Boyata was supposed to be a key cog to Celtic’s defense and had been a stalwart for the club for much of the second half of this past season. He brought strength and confidence on the ball, but also brought a knack for scoring goals on set pieces.
His header against Sevco and other goals off of set pieces became stuff of legends around Celtic Park.
Given the length of injury it will be interesting to see what Celtic do on the transfer market. While Eric Sviatchenko is an easy starting replacement, the sale of Saidy Janko earlier today and other players moving on in the offseason mean Celtic are suddenly low on quality replacements.
Sure, Celtic could do what it did last season at times and slide Mikael Lustig in to the middle and add Cristian Gamboa outside. It could also go three at the back like it did at times, but that was in the middle of the season and designed to get the squad to rotate as much as possible, not to start the season needing to stretch the group.
Next: Do Celtic Need Reinforcements for the Champions League?
The silver lining is that perhaps the knee injury isn’t as serious as first thought and Boyata could return sooner than the three-month timeline. But, that is not a given and Celtic clearly are going to be stretched at the back to start the season without signing some reinforcements.
Add us as a preferred source on Google