Virus plans stepped up
Celtic wi l l consider extra measures to protect stars from another Covid crisis in the next international break.
Parkhead boss Neil Lennon has revealed the club are looking at contingency plans in a bid to avoid a repeat of last month’s nightmare.
In October he lost Odsonne
Edouard, Ryan Christie, Nir Bitton and Hatem Abd Elhamed who all had to self-isolate on their return from international duty.
Celtic even had to hire a private jet to get keeper Vasilis Barkas back to Glasgow in time to face Rangers due to an airport strike in Greece.
With Lennon’s side chasing their Old Firm rivals at the top of the Premiership he can’t afford a similar scenario later this month.
The club are planning talks with individual associations about the safety of their players and Lennon refused to rule out private travel arrangements if required.
On the eve of today’s Scottish Cup semi-final with Aberdeen Lennon said: “It’s difficult. We can parley with different associations and say, ‘Can you give us a bit of leeway here?’ But whether that falls on deaf ears or not is another thing.
“There’s no doubt the damage done last month, losing four players through no fault of our own, was hard to take. Slowly but surely we’re getting the players back but you can see, even in the throes of a game, they’re not yet fully fit.
“Maybe the virus can take more out of you than we first thought.
“It’s a major concern when they go away again. We’ve been pretty stringent inside our own bubble and we’ve had no positive tests for a long time.
“In terms of Barkas, they were going to shut the airport in Greece due to a strike over there and we had to get him on a private plane.
“That’s not ideal. It’s a big undertaking when you may have 15 or 16 players away. But we desperately want to avoid a repeat of what happened last time.”
Lennon has been dealt another blow with news defender Kris Ajer is definitely absent today.
The Norwegian limped out of Thursday’s Europa League draw with Lille with a groin injury.
Lennon revealed Hoops winger James Forrest needs surgery on a stress fracture to his ankle that will keep him sidelined for weeks.
Christopher Jullien is on the way back after specialist treatment in Germany on his back problem.