The Celtic star looks set to be starting against the Rangers on Saturday after the squad was left severely weakened over the past week.
It is no secret that Neil Lennon will be forced to pick his team out of a severely weakened Celtic squad when the Rangers come visiting for the first Glasgow Derby of the season. The likes of James Forrest, Ryan Christie, Odsonne Edouard, Nir Bitton and Hatem Abd Elhamed are already confirmed to be out. While Albian Ajeti finds himself in a race against time to get fit.
And these are not just smokescreens generally used before a derby game to put the opposition off their game. There appears to be no way that these players with play come Saturday.
One of the most severely affected areas because of this has probably been the defence. It is arguable that the club were already a centre-back short before any of this happened. And now with both Bitton and Elhamed out as well, Celtic have not been left with many options.
More from Celtic FC News
- Celtic handed fresh injury doubt before Feyenoord game
- Celtic’s £40.7 million announcement should scare Rangers
- Brendan Rodgers makes superb claim about returning Celtic player
- BBC pundit makes sensational claim about Celtic hero Kyogo
- Kyogo Furuhashi sends clear message to Celtic doubters
As a result, it will be interesting to see how Neil Lennon manages to get around this. There appear to be two options at hand. Either, he can change up his formation and not play three at the back like he has done since the arrival of Shane Duffy. Or he could bring back Jullien into the setup.
The Frenchman has been out for over a month now with his own injury owes. But should have recovered by now. He might be thrown into the deep waters though by starting against the Rangers despite his long layoff.
The partnership of Jullien, Ajer and Duffy has not gotten much time to develop as they have played only one game together although that was a 5-0 win against Ross County. And if the Frenchman does indeed return to the line up, it will be interesting to see whether it is Duffy or him that starts in the heart of the back three.