ODSONNE EDOUARD is ‘itching to play’ after Neil Lennon gave the French striker Saturday’s win over Livingston off. Edouard watched from the sidelines as Albian Ajeti lead the line giving the 22-year-old the chance to gain some rest.
Celtic will be hoping to overcome Latvian side Riga and Lennon has said that Edouard is eager to lead the line, when speaking to the Glasgow Times.
“He’s trained well the last couple of days and he’s looking forward to playing. He’s itching to play. To be fair, all of them are.
“We have a lot of games and, sometimes, you have to listen to where the player is coming from.
“He missed a couple of games, came back in and three games in a week might have been too much for him. We made the right decision. We won the game, he’s fresh and it sets us up nicely for this game.
“We are trying to keep it as fresh and as balanced as we can. If we can negotiate this, it’s Hibs at the weekend, then another Euro game, then St Johnstone after that, so it’s still a lot of games.”
Lennon confirmed that he gave Edouard the game off after a heart to heart with his star striker.
Edouard is of the upmost importance to Celtic’s 10IAR bid and if this means managing his game times to avoid injuries then it is important that we do that.
Competing on all fronts is very important but this season, there’s only one thing that matters and that is the coveted 10IAR. Lennon will know that rotation and use of the squad is good but the scare that Livi gave will hopefully galvanise the aide into focusing until the final whistle.
The Frenchman was in incredible form last season, scoring 28 goals and notching 12 assists in 45 appearances in all competitions as Celtic steamed towards matching Jock Stein’s 1974 record. Now, with a new deal behind him he can be the man to fire us to 10IAR.
ALSO READ...Henrik’s helping hand?
