Hapoel Beer Sheva suffered a double blow last night as they lost 1-0 to Ashdod in the League Cup and had skipper Elyaniv Barda limp off after just nine minutes.
After back-to-back clean sheets to see off Olympiakos and earn a play-off tie against Celtic the Israeli champions have lost three goals in two matches ahead of their trip to Glasgow.
Barda appeared as a half-time substitute but was quickly replaced after picking up what appeared to be a groin injury.
The 34-year-old striker is the talisman of the Hapoel side after returning to Israel following five successful seasons with Genk in Belgium.
Dean David scored the only goal of the game in the 66th minute as Hapoel lost at home for the first time in almost a year following on from Sunday’s 4-2 win away to Beitar Jerusalem.
Last night Barak Bakhar the Hapoel coach admitted: “It’s too early to say how bad the injury is, but he will have some tests on Wednesday. We want him available against Celtic, but, if not, others will need to step up.”
Hapoel are back in action tomorrow night against Maccabi Haifa before they turn their attention to facing Celtic.
Looking ahead to the Champions League play-off hoops boss Brendan Rodgers said: “It will be tough like the last two rounds but God willing we can get through and achieve the object of qualifying for group stages.
“I don’t think they are in season yet, Astana were 21/22 games into their season but it will be tough.”
CLICK HERE for Brendan’s 4-4-2 to beat Motherwell.
