Celtic receive huge injury boost head of CFR Cluj clash

Celtic have endured a tough time dealing with injuries this season with a number of key players missing action at one point or the other. But Neil Lennon has now provided a huge injury boost to the fans going into Thursday’s Europa League clash against CFR Cluj.

Celtic are one of the busiest teams in all of world football. On top of dealing with three domestic competitions, they have to go through a grueling qualification stage just to make it to Europe. Thus, it is very difficult for Celtic players to cope up with a full season and often they end up getting injured.

This has been especially true this season with a number of first-team stars spending time on the sidelines due to injuries. This includes the likes of Mikey Johnston, Leigh Griffiths, Tom Rogic, Nir Bitton, Jozo Simunovic among many others. Naturally, Neil Lennon has endured a difficult time managing a squad that has been blighted continuously with injury problems.

But the Celtic manager has provided a huge boost to the club ahead of Thursday’s match against CFR Cluj, by declaring everybody except Jozo Simunovic and Daniel Azrani to be fit for the upcoming tie. This is a major positive heading into the Europa League clash as Celtic’s form had certainly suffered owing to the sheer number of stars who had been out injured.

According to Daily Record, Lennon said:

"“We are looking healthy, we have no fresh injuries. There’s a few bumps and bruises, Moritz (Bauer)’s ankle is still a little bit swollen.“Nir Bitton is back in training now, Mikey Johnston is back in training now, so the only long-term absentee is Jozo.“ Tom Rogic has a tiny little bit of fluid around the knee but he should train on Wednesday. Griffiths is back in training now but obviously he has missed a few weeks of training. But the squad depth is good.”"

The two sides have already met this season and in fact it was CFR Cluj who had eliminated Celtic from the UEFA Champions League qualification phase with an embarrassing 4-3 defeat at Parkhead. But then the Romanian champions blew their own chance to qualify as well in the Play-Off round.

As fate would have it, the two clubs were drawn into the same Europa League group along with Lazio and Rennes. And when they meet this Thursday, Neil Lennon’s men will be looking for revenge.