Former Celtic physio explains why Christopher Jullien was in Dubai

The former Celtic physio has explained why Christopher Jullien was on their trip to Dubai despite being out with a long-term injury.

Not many were happy when it emerged that Celtic were going to go ahead with their traditional mid-season trip to Dubai for warm weather training in the middle of a global pandemic. While it has served them well over the past few seasons, common sense should have prevailed on this occasion and it should have been called off.

Perhaps the feeling was that the camp would help them rediscover their form and go on a run in the second half of the season. The exact opposite has happened though. Neil Lennon, John Kennedy and 13 first-team players have been placed in isolation after returning, ending any last shred of hope that they had of turning around their campaign.

Ironically, it was Christopher Jullien, a player who has been confirmed to be out of action for three to four months with a knee injury, who ended up testing positive. Now, the Frenchman cannot be blamed for getting infected but questions have been raised why he was even on the trip.

Former Celtic physio, Brian Scott, has tried to explain the reason. As reported by The Scottish Sun, he said:

"“I would imagine that the medical staff regarded it as a great opportunity to work on Jullien morning, noon and night, which they obviously couldn’t have done if he’d been left behind.“We did the same thing with Morten Wieghorst. He came with us on a winter break to Florida when Martin was manager in 2001 when he was on crutches and it helped us get him back into action quicker than he would have done otherwise.“Having that extra time to work with a player on their rehab can make a big difference and I imagine that what the club was thinking about when they took him.”"

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Christopher Jullien suffered a knee injury in Celtic’s 3-0 win over Dundee United while trying to prevent a goal. In hindsight, it would have been better in the long run if he had not. It meant he was out against the Rangers and Nir Bitton had to feature at centre-back in that game. We all know how that turned out.

The Frenchman had already been through his fair share of injury issues this season and had spent months on the sidelines with a back issue. Thus, it would have been a huge blow for him to be hit with another lengthy setback and now this. Nothing seems to be going his way at this moment. At the end of the day though, he cannot be blamed for this at all and we can only wish him a speedy recovery.

The club should have decided to not arrange the trip in the middle of a pandemic in the first place. And now, they have paid the price for that. Unfortunately, the fans will have to suffer the consequences as well.