Stokes and Hooper miss out v Ross County

Neil Lennon will be without first choice strikers Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes for today’s clash with Ross County.

Georgios Samaras and Kris Commons will stand in for the strike duo with youngsters Tony Watt and James Keatings on the bench.

Lennon announced that he’d pick his side with Tuesday’s match in Helsingborgs in mind and has included five development squad players on the bench.

Scott Brown, James Forrest and Paddy McCourt missed last weekends trip to Philadephia and have been joined on the sidelines by Dylan McGeouch and Daryl Murphy.

Mikael Lustig and Kelvin Wilson come into defence alongside Charlie Mulgrew and Adam Matthews.

The inclusion of Lustig means that Matthews will switch to left-back in place of Emilio Izaguirre with Wilson keeping his place in defence following an impressive display against Real Madrid.

Izaguirre looks like continuing in left midfield with the more defensive minded Matthews to back him up.

Joe Ledley, Beram Kayal and Victor Wanyama will form the core of the midfield with both Samaras and Commons capable of dropping between midfield and attack.

On the bench Keatings makes his first appearance in over a year after an unhappy stint on loan at St Johnstone last season with Callum McGregor, an early substitute against Real Madrid retaining his place on the bench alongside Joe Chalmers and the more experienced Thomas Rogne.

v Ross County: Forster; Lustig, Wilson, Mulgrew; Matthews, Kayal, Wanyama, Ledley, Izaguirre; Commons, Samaras

Subs: Zaluska, Rogne, Watt, McGregor, Slane, Keatings, Chalmers. 

v HJK Helsinki: Forster; Matthews, Rogne, Mulgrew, Izaguirre; Brown Wanyama, Ledley; Commons (Forrest 74) Hooper (Kayal 74) Samaras (Murphy 88)
Not Used: Zaluska, Stokes, McCourt, Lustig