Celtic fans were furious at the state of the pitch at Rugby Park as Dedryck Boyata and Kris Ajer were added to the club’s growing injury list.
Jack Hendry and Charly Musonda came in to make their debuts but it was the players leaving the pitch that attracted attention.
This is the incident that saw Celtic defender Dedryck Boyata’s forced to go off through injury https://t.co/nYr8rn7Hwq pic.twitter.com/z9M6OAVSaS
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) February 3, 2018
Watching the replay Boyata’s injury is wholly down to a surface that should never ever host proper football matches.
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) February 3, 2018
Agree completely. Top@level football should be Grass only. I hate playing on that shite with Saturday Amateur football.
— Andrew Robertson (@AndrewR1793) February 3, 2018
Doctor: What happened?
I played at Rugby Park pic.twitter.com/b5RkHfMBbl
— CeltsAreHere (@CeltsAreHere) February 3, 2018
Bloody hell, now Ajer is down!!
Injury nightmare at Rugby Park.
Live updates >>>https://t.co/DMMPaHioz0
— ByTheMinute Celtic (@ByTheMinCeltic) February 3, 2018
Ajer with an achilles problem now, great.
— Read Celtic (@ReadCeltic) February 3, 2018
Boyata and Ajer injured. Congratulations on getting to the next round @fczenit_en
— Aidan (@AMc88_) February 3, 2018
That excuse for a top class pitch couldn’t have helped with Boyata’s injury, no give whatsoever ??
— matt mcglone (@MattMcGlone9) February 3, 2018
After just eight minutes Dedryck Boyata tussled with Eamonn Brophy before falling awkwardly to the deck.
Television replays showed the defender’s foot getting stuck on the surface as he fell to the ground.
Nir Bitton hardly had any time to get used to new team-mate Kris Ajer when the young Norwegian appeared to twist his ankle as he landed from an aerial challenge.
After treatment Ajer continued but eight minutes later he hobbled off with Scott Sinclair coming on and Kieran Tierney dropping into central defence alongside Bitton and Hendry.
A goal in the 69th minute from Youssouf Mulumbu gave the home side full points with Celtic never getting started.
Killie suffocated the game with Celtic unable to show their normal flair on a surface which made dribbling and quick turns impossible.