Some good news for a change for Celtic fans amidst what has been a rough international break for the club’s players.
On Monday, the Football Association of Ireland revealed that there was a positive test among their squad from tests on Sunday night. A second Irish player had tested positive. Given all the other breaking news surrounding Celtic players, many fans were preparing themselves for the worst. At the end of the day, there was a chance that Shane Duffy had either tested positive or would have to isolate due to being a close contact of the other player.
A second test was awaited as everyone got ready for another blow to team selection for the Glasgow Derby and subsequent matches. In that time the news of Hatem Abd Elhamed being tested positive came out. He was added to the list of unavailable players that also includes Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie and Nir Bitton. All contributing to a selection headache for Neil Lennon.
Thankfully, better news emerged on Monday evening as reported in the Independant in Ireland:
"“The Football Association of Ireland of Ireland can confirm that a member of Stephen Kenny’s Ireland squad has returned a negative result from a second COVID-19 test today after first returning a positive result from a UEFA test undertaken on Sunday evening.“The player – who cannot be named at this time – first received a positive result from the UEFA testers on Monday morning in the latest round of UEFA testing for COVID-19 ahead of the Nations League game against Finland in Helsinki on Wednesday.“The FAI medical team then organised a second test for the player which returned a negative result this afternoon.“The player will now be retested as soon as possible before the team’s flight to Finland on Tuesday morning.”"
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It’s still an unnamed player so we don’t know how or if Duffy is involved or in close contact. But the news so far anyway, comes as a massive relief to everyone involved and to Celtic fans subject of course to that further confirmation is set to follow. It would be quite a blow to be without the defender’s services and goal scoring threat for the big game.
It’s certainly better news, but then there are still a few days to go, more international gatherings and matches to get through. And who knows what else will crop up in that period of time.
Hopefully we won’t see more issues coming, but based on the recent Celtic statement following Elhamed’s positive test, we might not have heard the last about the situation.