Neil Lennon confirms news Celtic fans were dreading

Neil Lennon has confirmed the bad news which the Celtic fans had been dreading, heading into this Saturday’s Glasgow Derby.

It is safe to say that Celtic have endured an absolute nightmare over the course of the last week or so, as players left, right and centre have become unavailable for this Saturday’s Glasgow Derby for one reason or another.

Odsonne Edouard was the first go down as he tested positive after reporting to France under-21 duty at Clarefontaine. Nir Bitton and Hatem Abd Elhamed also ended up testing positive while away with the Israel national team.

Ryan Christie on the other hand was ordered to isolate 14 days despite not testing positive himself, as it was adjudged that he was a close contact of Stuart Armstrong while with the Scotland national team. And while it looks like the club did try their best to get him the all clear for Saturday, the Scottish government officials have rejected Celtic’s request.

Neil Lennon appeared to confirm as much while speaking with The Celtic View (Issue 12, Page 6) and as cited by Celts Are Here:

"“I’ve spoken to all of the boys, and they’re all in good spirits.“Ryan is obviously self-isolating, but we had a treadmill sent up to him and he’s been doing work-outs in the house.“Ultimately, we want the guys to rest, get well and we’ll welcome them back into the fold with open arms when they’re ready in a couple of weeks.”"

Some fans were hoping against hope that somehow Edouard or Christie would be available for the game. But judging by these comments, that is not going to be the case.

This leaves Celtic with a heavily weakened squad going into the derby. James Forrest was already confirmed to be out with a fractured ankle, while Bitton and Elhamed had also been ruled out as a result of their positive tests. And now we can add the names of Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie to the list of absentees.

Now, all we can do is hope that no more stars end up going down in the coming days. And hopefully Albian Ajeti and Leigh Griffiths also manage to gain full fitness in time for the big game.