Whilst reports of Liel Abada moving on from Celtic continued in recent days, it was the injury picked up in training while on international duty with Israel that raised more immediate concerns.

After all transfer speculation can wait until the summer transfer window re-opens, League titles and a possible tilt at a domestic treble however are foremost in the minds of every Celtic supporter. And if that’s to be achieved you would expect Liel Abada to play a huge part in such a strive for silverware.

Therefore, news coming out of Israel, as reported by Sport 5, that Abada’s Quad injury is not a muscle tear as first feared, and instead may be a minor injury, from which the Israeli winger could recover from in time to face Euro 2024 qualifiers against Kosovo and Switzerland over the next few days, is certainly more positive than when Abada was pictured receiving treatment in Israel – with Sport 5 reporting:

‘Before the training, good news came from the direction of Liel Abada, who stretched his quadriceps muscle last night and abandoned the training. The fear of a muscle tear has been removed and now the player will try to return gradually with the goal of trying to qualify him for the match against Kosovo. Abada, who will undergo an MRI tomorrow, took part in the training and said: “I feel much better than yesterday.’

Abada himself being quoted as saying ‘I feel much better than yesterday’ is certainly reassuring to hear, but perhaps it remains concerning Israel could rush Abada back for Saturday’s game with Kosovo and risk aggravating the injury.

However, that decision you would hope will be taken by the Israeli medical team with a long-term view in mind, rather than a short-term decision that could impact on the remainder of Abada’s and in turn Celtic’s season.

Abada’s 12 goas this season certainly evidence his importance to Celtic and with his ‘skelping capabilities well known, it would be good to know the 21-year-old is fit and firing with a Glasgow Derby just around the corner – although perhaps Borna Barasic may feel somewhat differently about that!

With Celtic managing injuries to the likes of Reo Hatate, Aaron Mooy, Greg Taylor and Cameron Carter-Vickers already, some good news on Abada would be most welcome, although we won’t be able to count our chickens until the results of the MRI scan become known.

At the very least the possibility of a muscle tear seems to have been discounted for now, and with Celtic very much in the hunt for a clean sweep of domestic silverware having Abada available for the run-in could be crucial.

Niall J