Neil Lennon is delighted with the way that Hatem Abd Elhamed has settled in and made an impact at Celtic.
The 28-year-old didn’t fit in with the usual Celtic signing profile on an emerging talent with brief stints in Belgium and Romania before he hit top form back in Israel.
Elhamed picked up just one international cap before joining Celtic- as a late substitute in a heavy defeat from Poland- with social media underwhelmed by his arrival.
Since pulling on the hoops he has barely put a foot wrong, solving the right-back problem virtually instantly and showing at Ibrox he can do more than a turn in central defence.
Discussing Elhamed with Celtic TV Lennon said:
We needed someone to play both positions proficiently. He was outstanding at Ibrox when he was called on to go into central defence and at right-back in the big games he has excelled. We’ve got a good player there but Nir can deputise there as we seen before he got the injury.
It’s good to have cover, obviously Jozo is a big miss and we’ve got Jack Hendry who is playing tonight (Tuesday v Albion Rovers) in the development game. Hopefully he’ll get upto speed quickly as well.
Moritz Bauer played at right-back against Hibs on Saturday but from his ‘big games’ reference it seems that Lennon will go with Elhamed to play right-baxk against Cluj tomorrow night.
