Neil Lennon is hopeful of having Georgios Samaras available to face Barcelona on November 7.
The Greek internationalist suffered a serious looking ankle injury during the first half of Celtic’s 2-1 defeat in the Nou Camp and was replaced by James Forrest.
Television viewers watched Samaras land dangerously on his right ankle but initial fears of a long term injury look to be wide of the mark.
“We don’t know how long he’s going to be out for but it’s not as bad as it first looked,” Lennon told Celtic tv. “We’re hoping that he’ll be fit for the return game.
“We knew straight away with Georgios that it was bad, he’s not one of these guys to try and milk things especially when he was playing so well. We knew straight away that he couldn’t continue.
“There was a lot of swelling but once that goes down we’ll know the full extent of the injury.”
Describing the loss of Samaras added: “Georgios is a different type of out ball for us whether it’s through his height or athleticism, he’s very clever with his runs off the ball. In the second half he would have been the ideal outlet for us.”
Looking ahead to the second half of the Champions League campaign Lennon said: “I’m not guaranteeing that we’ll qualify from this group, I’m not guaranteeing that we’ll finish third but we have given ourselves a huge shot in the arm from the first three games.
“We’ve given the fans something too hold onto but there is room for improvement.”
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