Celtic star’s mysterious absence looks set to continue

The Celtic star has been absent for over a month now and there appears to be no update about his return to the first-team.

It is no secret that Celtic have had their issues both on and off the pitch this season. While their performance against the Rangers on Saturday was toothless and disheartening, it cannot be denied that the starting XI on the day was nowhere close to their strongest.

All the talk over the past few weeks have surrounded the international break though with players being left at a higher risk of being exposed to the virus while away with their national sides. We have witnessed this first hand with Odsonne Edouard, Nir Bitton and Hatem Abd Elhamed all testing positive while Ryan Christie was placed in a 14 day isolation due to being adjudged to be a close contact of Stuart Armstrong.

Amidst all the chaos though it is easy to forget that it has been over a month since Christopher Jullien has not featured for over a month. The Frenchman was supposed to form a back three along with Duffy and Ajer but the trio have only played together once till now.

It was expected that he would be available for the Glasgow Derby but ended up not even making the bench. And Neil Lennon has admitted he might not feature against AC Milan while speaking on the club’s YouTube channel:

"“Chris Jullien, I doubt very much will be available…maybe Ryan, maybe we’ll have Ryan back, we’ll have to see how it is over the next few days.”"

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Since joining Celtic last summer for a reported fee of around £7 million from Toulouse, the Frenchman has been a regular starter in Neil Lennon’s side. And while he has had his detractors, there is no denying that he is a good player with a penchant for coming good on the big occasion. Just look at his performances against Lazio last season or the Scottish League Cup final goal against the Rangers.

His absence has clearly been felt by this side and hopefully he will be back soon. Through the course of the past month, he has managed to make it onto the bench a few times but has not featured at all.

One can only hope that he recovers soon because this side could clearly do with a player like him. Shane Duffy has not looked comfortable in the middle of the back three and that position is probably much more suited for someone like Jullien.