CELTIC will face Valencia in the Europa League this month without the services of either Filip Benkovic or Dedryck Boyata.
The Croatian, on loan from Leicester City, has been ruled out for up to six weeks with an ankle injury and now the Belgium World Cup star, who has been missing since playing in the 4th Round of the Scottish Cup against Airdrie, has been ruled out for another FOUR weeks.
Brendan Rodgers hoped to have Boyata available for Sunday’s trip to Perth to play St Johnstone in our first away game of 2019 at McDiarmid Park – the ground where blue nosed referee John Beaton sent Boyata off for dissent in the Betfred Cup quarter finals earlier in the season.
But Boyata has incurred a set-back to his abductor injury and that means he is now expected to miss the whole of February.
Kristoffer Ajer and Jozo Simunovic performed well against St Johnstone on Wednesday night but Valencia is a much tougher challenge. Rodgers though will be hoping that Simunovic, who I injury prone at the best of times, can remain fit for the whole month.
Jack Hendry, who was the subject of an enquiry from Dundee, was retained at Celtic as cover and as we mentioned this morning in an earlier article, Efe Ambrose is a free agent after Hibs pulled out of a deal to re-sign him for six months.
Efe never put a foot wrong at Easter Road and could provide emergency cover for Brendan Rodgers, assuming that the support would give him their backing if he was to play.
It is certainly not the worst idea.
Also on The Celtic Star today…
Three Celts staying, for now at least, today’s BBC Scotland Bulletin
Jim Craig – Jimmy McGrory (2), Bertie Thomson, Alec Thomson and Peter Scarff all scored
