Charlie Christie knows that his son Ryan will bounce back from his red card at Livingston and the online abuse that forced him to close his Twitter account.
The midfielder has been Celtic’s outstanding player this season with 11 goals so far to cement his place in Neil Lennon’s first XI.
Sunday’s red card will see him miss the matches against Ross County and Aberdeen but compared to the knocks that he has overcome so far in his career there’s no doubt that Christie will bounce back.
As recently as April he was lying in hospital having plates inserted in his face after a brutal attack from Dom Ball that saw him miss out as the Treble Treble was clinched.
Speaking to Radio Scotland Charlie explained:
I believe there is a wee bit on social media, I am not a fan of social media for this exact reason. I said he’s got to put it behind him and come back more determined. He owes his team-mates one and his manager one and he knows that.
It’s modern society. It’s not a good thing and it’s not healthy at all. In Scotland we tend to exacerbate these things. One way communication is never good but he’s got to take it on the chin.
Ryan is an easy target and he’s got to take a percentage of the blame, not the whole blame. A lot of the finger pointing will be at Ryan because of the red card. He’s a big enough lad to say that for himself, he doesn’t need his dad to say that for him. He takes it on the chin.
I said to Ryan, ‘It’s not all plaudits, you have a lot since July, now its a minor setback but its nothing compared to his injury setbacks.
But the social media thing, he’s bigger than that. To me the abuse is incredulous. But that is modern society. I think it can be dangerous. Young players have got to be careful because for all the good sides there is a dark side to it as well.
Christie is with the Scotland squad this week for the Euro qualifiers against Russia and San Marino. Between his suspensions against Ross County and Aberdeen he will be able to play for Celtic against Lazio on October 24.
There has been reports that the majority of Twitter accounts that abused Christie were from fake Celtic fans.