Celtic forced to take action after another international scare

Celtic could have found themselves in a sticky situation with another international player but a private jet has ended up saving the day.

Neil Lennon already has several players crossed out and a few question marks over this week’s team selection. He’ll have been delighted at Celtic taking extraordinary action to bring a player back to Glasgow safely and in time.

International matches can bring chaos to planning for domestic games afterwards, injuries, late flights, players not getting much needed rest between games. That’s all pretty normal. Unfortunately, the global pandemic has added a new dimension too.

The Hoops already have Ryan Christie, Hatem Elhamed and Nir Bitton all definitely out following positive tests for them or a contact they have spent time with. Odsonne Edouard is also a major doubt though as his isolation period has ended, he could still be in contention to play in the upcoming derby match.

But then another potential problem linked to the international matches appeared to threaten the Celtic squad again. An air strike was called by Greek public sector union ADEDY and looked likely to down planes from Greece for a couple of days.

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With Celtic’s summer goalkeeper signing Vasilis Barkas away on Greek international duty there was a real risk of the news meaning he would be unable to return to Glasgow safely and quickly enough to participate in Saturday’s derby match.

Celtic have stepped in quickly to avoid this being a problem. The Daily Record tells the story and outlines that the club have paid out to arrange a private jet for Barkas. It would have been yet another blow to Lennon’s team selection had Barkas also been sitting out this game. A somewhat frustrating blow given the keeper was an unused sub in Greece’s last game in this international break, a 0-0 draw in the Nations League with Kosovo.

Neil Lennon was delighted at the jet setting move, and hoping that this international week would soon be behind him:

"“We’ve had some guys ruled out now and then you’re sitting at home biting your nails hoping nothing else happens. Even if we could though, you never really want to stop a player from playing for his country, because it means so much to them.”"

It’s definitely a significant boost to get Barkas back, so congratulations to whoever makes the airline booking decisions for the Hoops.