Jozo Simunovic will miss the rest of the season after undergoing a knee operation.
According to a report in The Scottish Sun the defender went under the knife in London last week and could even miss out on next season’s European qualifiers in July.
The 21-year-old joined Celtic in August from Dinamo Zagreb for a fee that seemed to vary between €4-8m dependent on an initial fee and potential sell on value.
After making his debut away to Ajax in the Europa League on September 17 he had to wait five weeks before making his domestic bow in a 5-0 win at home to Dundee United.
The defender made his last appearance in the 3-1 win over St Johnstone in January and afterwards discovered that he had been playing with a broken bone in his knee.
Simunovic is Ronny Deila’s most expensive signing but the arrival of Erik Sviachenko in January followed by the return of Charlie Mulgrew gives the Celtic boss decent cover in that area.
The Croatian u-21 internationalist seemed to be on the road to recovery when he resumed light training three weeks ago but after feeling pain again the club has decided on surgery as a cure.
Simunovic’s injury is the latest blow to hit Ronny Deila’s summer signings with Saidy Janko, Logan Bailly, Nadir Ciftci, Tyler Blackett, Carlton Cole and Scott Allan barely featuring in the top team.
Janko played 45 minutes in the Development League against St Mirren on March 7 but hasn’t featured in the top team for seven months.
Between them Bailly and Allan have started five matches, Ciftci has been sent on loan to Turkey, Cole has recently returned to the club after being given leave of absence while Blackett has played for just 13 minutes since replacing Simunovic in the match against Molde then being substituted by Ciftci.