BHOYS IN A ‘PANIC’ BUT WELSH GLAD HE GOT ALL CLEAR

CELTIC players were thrown into a ‘panic’ during the dramatic aftermath of their ill-fated trip to Dubai, with squad members anxiously waiting for phone calls ordering them into isolation. A positive Covid test for Christopher Jullien, who flew to the UAE with the first team despite carrying an injury that precluded him from training, caused high anxiety in the ranks on the club’s return to Glasgow. Manager Neil Lennon, assistant John Kennedy and 13 players have now been identified as ‘close contacts’ of Jullien and forced into lockdown, leaving first-team coach Gavin Strachan at the helm of a shadow starting XI for Monday night’s 1-1 draw with Hibs. And defender Stephen Welsh, relieved to be cleared for action despite having been part of the travelling party, said: ‘Probably for everyone there was a bit of panic because anyone can get it these days. So you’re just hoping you don’t get the phone call that tells you that you’re a positive. I was happy I wasn’t one of the guys involved so I could go and play. ‘We have our own bubble. This is the first time since June, July, when we started testing, that someone’s picked up a positive case within the club. ‘So I think we’re going to follow all the protocols from now on until the end of the season. You never think it’s going to be you. So when it happens it is a bit of a shock.’ Asked when he found out he’d be playing against Hibs, Welsh said: ‘It was earlier in the day. It all happened very quickly. ‘Everything was normal on Sunday — but then we found out about the positive case and everything happened really quickly. Once you find out you’re playing, nothing else really matters.’ Like all of his team-mates, Welsh is caught in the middle of an increasingly inflamed political row over Celtic’s decision to travel abroad at the height of a global pandemic — and allegations that they broke rules during their sunshine break. At the age of 20, with a scattering of first-team appearances to his name, the centre-half can’t be expected to speak on behalf of his employers. From his viewpoint, though, he saw nothing wrong with the arrangements surrounding the mid-season training camp. ‘The training in Dubai, I thought, was excellent,’ he said. ‘We got to work on a lot of things. We’ve come back and we’ve had all the bad news about Chris and everyone hopes he recovers well.’