KT NOW FACES FITNESS FIGHT
FROM BACK PAGE Neil Lennon has revealed the 22-year-old is still not pain free and is struggling to make the Premiership opener against St Johnstone on August 3.
Tierney remains on the radar of Arsenal and Napoli but neither club has came back in with a firm offer after Celts slapped a £25million bounty on his head.
The full-back’s main priority is to get fully fit and firing for Celtic but Lennon admitted he can’t put a time on a return.
He said: “KT is still having problems with the pubic injury, we will need to get to the bottom of that.
“In terms of the double hernia, that’s all sorted. But he’s still saying he’s a bit sore to start running.
“I don’t think it gets any worse but there’s just a constant dull pain there.
“Eventually, you can mature out of it. I have seen that. But right now, he still feels a lot of discomfort with it.
“The rest won’t do him any harm at all. He will benefit from it. We don’t want him to be out for too long but we need to get him right.
“He now has some competition in Boli Mbombo too, so that means he can step in. That might take the weight off him a bit.”
Lennon revealed in-form attacker Mikey Johnston has also suffered an injury setback and is set to miss Celtic’s Champions League first round second-leg clash with Sarajevo on Wednesday.
The youngster stole the show in Bosnia before limping out with a tweak in his thigh but is not expected to be a long-term casualty.
Lennon said: “Mikey will miss the second leg with a thigh strain. It’s nothing serious and he’ll back for the next round should we get there.
“Losing Mikey is a blow because he’s done really well. Thankfully, it’s not a big issue. He should be back in a week to 10 days and that’s important.
“He’s 20 and when do you stop calling them boys? He’s a man now and we feel he should be kicking on. This is a big season for him and he’s started in the right vein.
“He’s a talent, he has the game to play for Celtic and you saw that with his goal in Sarajevo.
“I hope it won’t be one of those stop-start seasons for him with niggly injuries.
“We touched on conditioning with him and he’s worked hard over the summer. It’s just a question of keeping him fit.
“James Forrest had similar issues when he was coming through.”
Lennon is still on the hunt for recruits having missed out on right-back target Tommy Smith, set to opt for a £4m move to Stoke.
Brentford midfielder Romaine Sawyers remains a target but Record Sport understands Celtic have yet to follow up their initial £2m bid last week and face competition from two English Championship clubs, one believed to be Leeds.
Celts will step up their pre-season preparations against Rennes at Parkhead today with new Bhoys Christopher Jullien and Luca Connell set to start.
Lennon said: “The other players who didn’t start in Bosnia, Leigh Griffiths and Lewis Morgan, will also feature. We’ll just rotate the squad going forward.”