Almost as a throwaway line Neil Lennon revealed on Saturday that he ‘very much doubts’ that Chris Jullien will be available for Thursday’s match against AC Milan.
The absence of the defender, who was a hero a year ago in the back-to-back wins over Lazio is a big blow with very little detail known about his injury.
Jullien’s last Celtic appearance was on September 12 away to Ross County where he played the full 90 minutes alongside Shane Duffy and Kris Ajer in central defence.
Against St Mirren four days later he was on the bench, when Livingston visited Celtic Park he missed the first of three matches with a back injury reported.
The Frenchman was on the bench for the Europa League match away to Sarajevo but when Nir Bitton picked up an early injury Neil Lennon turned to Hatem Abd Elhamed with Jullien also watching the late win over St Johnstone from the bench.
With Bitton and Elhamed ruled out at the weekend Jullien should have been the natural replacement for the Glasgow derby but from midweek the rumours were that Stephen Welsh would be making his debut.
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Chris Jullien, I doubt very much will be available…maybe Ryan, maybe we’ll have Ryan back, we’ll have to see how it is over the next few days
No details emerged on Saturday about the nature of Jullien’s injury but it is likely to be questioned on Wednesday ahead of the match against AC Milan. Normally the Frenchman is very active on social media but that activity has been greatly reduced over the last month.
