€5 million Celtic player left out of Champions League squad

Celtic will be kicking off their Champions League campaign in a week when they take on Feyenoord away in the Netherlands. The Hoops were not able to win a single game in Europe’s elite competition last season despite putting in a few impressive performances and finished bottom of their group as a result. They will surely be looking to improve upon that.

Celtic appear to have named their squad for the group stages of the competition. And there is one surprising omission.

Maik Nawrocki does not appear to be part of the squad. He was signed just this summer from Legia Warsaw for a transfer fee believed to be around €5 million and was starting consistently before getting injured.

On the other hand, Cameron Carter-Vickers is expected to be out for a similar length of time with injury as well. But he has been included in the Champions League squad, as it looks like Rodgers decided to go with the American’s experience and proven quality.

€5 million Celtic player left out of Champions League squad

It does feel like Nawrocki not being included in the squad has to do with his injury rather than his ability. Rodgers did start him consistently when he was available for selection.

The likes of Carter-Vickers, Gustaf Lagerbielke, Liam Scales, Nat Phillips, Stephen Welsh and Tomoki Iwata are all in the squad. So, perhaps Rodgers felt that he had enough cover in the position to not include Nawrocki.

Of course, there are homegrown rules in place as well. That might have worked in favour of Welsh, even though he is expected to remain out of action for a longer period of time.

At the end of the day, this would surely be a disappointment for Nawrocki. We can only hope that he recovers quickly and is back to full fitness as soon as possible.