HATEM EBD ELHAMED has been ruled out of the League Cup Final against the Rangers on Sunday 8 December. According to the player’s agent Dudu Dahan, Elhamed will be sidelined from the Celtic side for around six weeks, so isn’t likely to be in contention for a starting place until after Christmas, with the second match in December against the Ibrox club in the Scottish Premiership at Celtic Park on 29 December being a likely target for the Arab-Israel’s return.
However Neil Lennon may decide to hold him back to after the winter break and the trip to Dubai so it could be the match against Kilmarnock on 22 January 2020 before we see the £1.6million summer signing from Hapoel Be’er Sheva back in the Celtic team.
Elhamed seemed to pull a muscle in his groin area late in the game in Rome last Thursday night as both teams looked for a winner. That of course arrived for Celtic and even today UEFA were tweeting about the goal scored by Oliver Ntcham. This footage has different commentary so if you need another excuse to watch it again, there it is!
Drama in Rome and a famous night for Celtic 🍀
📺 Watch all of matchday 4’s late winners 🤩👇#UEL
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) November 14, 2019
Elhamed broke the bad news of his worse than expected scan result at the weekend on his Instagram page, saying “Bad news this moring but I will be back stronger. Thank God always.” Now though, according to a report in Daily Record, Dudu Dahan has revealed that the player will be out for six weeks.
The Celtic manager is clearly a huge fan of Elhamed. “For the money we bought him for he’s proving to be real value for money. But we looked and looked and looked at him. Then we looked at him again and were always wondering: ‘What’s wrong with him? Where is the flaw?’
“Every time, though, we went back to him, looked at the footage again and looked at other players.
“And finally we thought: ‘We’ve got to trust our eyes, trust our instincts.’
“I’ve a good relationship with his agent who was waxing lyrical about Hatem … as agents do. But he has been true to his word so far – Hatem has been excellent.”
Neil Lennon shrewd summer spending in the transfer market extended beyond Elhamed for the right back slot in the team and has ensured that there are still decent options available to him despite this injury set-back.
Mortiz Bauer, on a season long loan from Stoke City and with an option to buy secured, will benefit for the increased game-time while Jeremy Frimpong has lit up the Celtic performances in his handful of starts in recent weeks and that has won him a place in the Dutch International squad.
Frimpong didn’t feature in Rome as he’d not been registered for the Europa League squad, although Sandman at the weekend in his hilarious Player Ratings reckoned it was because it was past his bed-time!
Certainly Neil Lennon will have no fears playing Frimpong in the League Cup Final.
ALSO ON THE CELTIC STAR…
‘It’s now all about the money,’ Celtic criticised for putting Cash before Supporters…see HERE.
TELL us how you have got on in the Celtic Ballots that seem to favour some supporters and at the expense of others. We are going to be doing another article this evening on supporters’ thoughts and opinions on the HCTS and the way Celtic are setting rules, moving the goalposts and shifting as many tickets to corporate sales at the detriment of the ordinary supporter. Suppose they’ve got million quid bonuses to pay in December. Email your thoughts to editor@thecelticstar.co.uk and we’ll try to include in our next article on Celtic’s Ballotgate.
Loading ...Survey on Celtic’s Cup Final Ballots – it takes two seconds…see HERE.
