Dedryck Boyata has dropped out of the Belgium squad to face Cyprus tomorrow for personal reasons.
The defender played the full 90 minutes of Thursday’s 3-1 home win over Russia but wasn’t part of the squad that flew on to Cyprus today.
???????? Dedryck #Boyata (personal reasons) & Matz #Sels (shoulder injury) are out for #CYPBEL. Take care guys! ????????#COMEONBELGIUM #EURO2020 #EuropeanQualifiers pic.twitter.com/wiDzOWBZob
— Belgian Red Devils (@BelRedDevils) March 23, 2019
Clearly the nature of his absence is an issue and continues the run of problems that Celtic have had in central defence all season.
Boyata missed Sunday’s 1-0 win over Dundee due to a groin strain which forced Neil Lennon to draft in Mikael Lustig to partner Kris Ajer in the heart of the hoops defence.
Ajer in turn suffered a head knock during the match that forced him to be replaced by Filip Benkovic who was making his first appearance in seven weeks.
Lustig and Ajer will be playing against each other in a European Championship qualifier on Tuesday night which means that it will be Thursday before Neil Lennon can get to work with his central defensive partnership for next Sunday’s Glasgow derby.