Christopher Jullien and Boli Bolingoli will play from the start against AIK tonight.
Last week Celtic’s £10m defenders remained on the bench through the 4-3 defeat from Cluj that ended the hoops chances of reaching the group phase of the Champions League.
Since the end of last season Celtic have lost Dedryck Boyata, Mikael Lustig, Emilio Izaguirre, Kieran Tierney and Cristian Gamboa while the loans for Jeremy Toljan and Filip Benkovic have ended.
Hatem Abd Elhamed was the only addition to the defence last week as Celtic twice threw away winning positions in the second half.
The decision not to use two of the summer signings has been criticised and analysed in equal measure with Lennon revealing that both men will start against the Swedish champions as he explained their situation.
“They haven’t hit the ground running yet, but we’ve got hopes they will come good,” the Celtic boss told The Sun. “We have to be patient. Other people aren’t patient. We have to work with them — they will play against AIK and hopefully it will be a step in the right direction for them to show what they are really all about.
“Glasgow’s a tough football environment. It takes a bit of character and players learn that as they go along. I’m not writing them off. Other people can, but it’s way too early. We work with them and we coach them. It’s our responsibility to get the best out of them.”
Scott Brown will return to the Celtic side after missing the Betfred Cup win against Dunfermline with the team announced at 6.30pm tonight.
Surely our Chief Executive can come out and speak directly to Celtic supporters?https://t.co/Bk13HujaTj
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) August 22, 2019