Jozo Simunovic will miss Saturday’s match at Hamilton Accies and the Europa League opener away to Rennes a week today.
The defender has been managing a long running knee condition which has restricted him to one game a week but now it seems to have deteriorated further.
Simunovic hasn’t played since the 2-0 Europa League play-off win over AIK on August 22 with The Sun providing an update on his problem:
JOZO SIMUNOVIC is set to miss Celtic’s Europa League opener with Rennes next week. SunSport understands the Hoops defender is set to undergo more checks on a knee problem. Simunovic sat out games with AIK and Rangers before the international break – and is still not ready to return. The 25-year-old will miss Celtic’s clash with Hamilton on Saturday and won’t travel to France for Thursday’s Group E tie.
With Nir Bitton expected to be out for the remainder of this month Celtic will be keen to have Kris Ajer back to full fitness.
Whether he can be risked on Hamilton’s plastic pitch is a different issue with the Norwegian coming off injured in the early stages of the 4-1 win away to AIK on August 29.
Hatem Abd Elhamed and Christopher Jullien could continue the partnership that they started at Ibrox against Hamilton on Saturday allowing Moritz Bauer to step in at right-back.
