Marian Shved and Jack Hendry have been left out of the Celtic squad in Bosnia to face FK Sarajevo in the first competitive match of the season.
Both players featured during the pre-season matches in Austria and Switzerland but have been left in Glasgow to work on injuries.
????? NL: “@Jack_Hendry2 and Marian Shved didn’t travel due to picking up knocks in training yesterday.”
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 8, 2019
Central defensive problems have been a feature of Celtic’s Champions League qualifiers in recent seasons with Hendry’s injury restricting options for Neil Lennon.
Christopher Jullien looks like being given his debut tomorrow night alongside Kris Ajer with Jozo Simunovic the only other central defender with top team experience.
In previous seasons Mikael Lustig and Nir Bitton have been drafted in to play in central defence. With Lustig now at KAA Gent and Bitton only starting five matches last season it looks like signing another central defender will have to be addressed this month.
Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg will be in charge of tomorrow’s match, the 34-year-old refereed his first Champions League group match last season when he took charge of Manchester City v Hoffenheim in December.