Celtic trio left out of squad against FC Copenhagen

Celtic will be without three of their stars when they take on FC Copenhagen in the first leg of the Europa League round of 32.

Celtic have been forced to leave out three of their stars from the squad that will take on FC Copenhagen in the first leg of the Europa League round of 32 clash owing to injury. This follows the trend of injuries that has halted the club’s progress throughout the course of the season and the work that Neil Lennon has put in despite these issues is admirable.

Firstly, the club will be without Greg Taylor on their trip to Denmark. The left-back has come into his own in recent weeks and will surely be a huge miss for the team. The Scot injured himself last Sunday against Aberdeen and has not managed to recover in time for the big European night. As a result, it is expected that either Jonny Hayes or Boli Bolingoli will fill in at left-back.

Neither option is very attractive though. Hayes put in a rotten performance against Aberdeen after coming on for Greg Taylor. Bolingoli on the other hand has not been the most reliable left-back at any point of the season and has not featured much over the last few months. Thus, it will be a headache for Lennon to pick one between the two.

Another man missing is Hatem Abd Elhamed, who has been out for a prolonged period with injury and although he is close to a comeback, he is not yet back to match fitness. Thus, Celtic will be relying on either Moritz Bauer or Jeremie Frimpong’s fitness against the Danish side as a last moment injury to Leigh Griffiths must have thrown the 3-5-2 out of the window.

As reported by the Daily Record, Griffiths picked up a knock while training yesterday and is not expected to feature in the first leg. Thus, Lennon will be expected deploy the 4-2-3-1 formation at Telia Parken, with Odsonne Edouard leading the line alone as Patryk Klimala has not shown enough yet to be trusted with a start in a game of this magnitude.