Neil Lennon has revealed that Odsonne Edouard missed last night’s 3-1 win over Rennes due to a ‘niggle’.
Cynics are bound to have a wry smile at the extent of the niggle with the striker playing in almost every minute of Celtic’s eight-match winning run going into last night’s tie as well as being first pick for the French u-21 side.
Lewis Morgan stepped in for Edouard and opened the scoring with Lennon’s side as potent as ever around goal as they booked top place in Group E.
Asked about the striker’s absence Lennon told the Daily Record:
He’s got a niggle so we didn’t want to take any chances. We’ll see how he is for the weekend but that performance tonight was without Odsonne so it shows how well we can play even if we have important players missing. It sums up the group at the minute, we’re in a really good place.
Lewis Morgan comes in and he’s a testament to being a really good professional. He goes out and plays brilliantly like that. We’re all really pleased for Lewis as we knew he could do it.
We felt he would bring a little bit of pace as he’s a really fit lad and he’s getting stronger physically. He just needs to believe in himself a little bit more the way that we believe in him. As regards Odsonne, we’ll just need to take it day by day with him and see how he is.
Injuries to Vakoun Bayo and Leigh Griffiths have turned Edouard into a one man strike force but it’s a responsibility he has handled with ease while remaining injury free.
After last night’s performance from the side, which saw Morgan playing as striker before Leigh Griffiths took on that role in the last 15 minutes Lennon is likely to consider a similar side at Ross County on Sunday regardless of Edouard’s fitness.
On Wednesday Celtic are at home to Hamilton Accies in the SPFL before the first trophy of the season is decided at Hampden when the hoops face Steven Gerrard’s side in the League Cup Final.