Celtic confirm that another player has tested positive

This international break has been an absolute nightmare for Celtic as the club has confirmed another player has tested positive.

If this international break has taught us anything, it is that there should not be one in the middle of a global pandemic. And it is quite surprising that these games have not been called off yet while players are testing positive left, right and centre. If the same thing had happened at a club, they would have surely been handed a hefty fine by now. One club who have had it worse than most is Celtic.

The international break had just started when Odsonne Edouard tested positive after reporting on French under-21 duty. Next was the turn of Ryan Christie, who did not get infected himself, but was ordered to quarantine for 14 days after it was adjudged that he had come in close contact with Stuart Armstrong, who did return a positive test while on Scotland international duty.

Now Celtic have released an official statement confirming that Nir Bitton also returned a positive test while on international duty yesterday:

"CELTIC Football Club can confirm that Nir Bitton has returned a positive COVID-19 test yesterday while on international duty.We send our sincere best wishes to Nir and any other players or staff affected within the Israel squad. We are in constant dialogue with Nir and look forward to him returning safely to the Celtic squad as soon as possible.Clearly, recent events during this international period are very concerning and frustrating. We have worked tirelessly to ensure a safe and secure working environment and since testing has begun our players and medical staff have done a brilliant job in very difficult circumstances."

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And it is arguable that he should not have been there in the first place after badly twisting his ankle against FK Sarajevo which was expected to keep him out for three to four weeks.

Instead, he ended up playing 120 minutes of football against Scotland, just days after being in a wheelchair. As a result, there were fears that he could have aggravated his injury and would be out for a while.

Still there were those hoping that he would somehow recover in time to feature against the Rangers with a number of other Celtic players missing as well. The positive test has extinguished all such hopes though.

If things continue in this way though, there could be a crisis at Celtic. Forrest has already been confirmed to be out till at least November with a fractured ankle. Albian Ajeti is fighting against time to be fit for the Glasgow Derby. Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie are major doubts. And now Bitton is out as well.

All we can do now is hope that no more Celtic players get injured or test positive. As things stand, the Hoops already have a severely weakened squad to take on Steven Gerrard’s Rangers.