Hatem Abd Elhamed is expected to return to Israel before the transfer window closes- increasing the pressure on Celtic to bring in a new centre-half.
In December it was claimed that Elhamed was homesick after his family returned to Israel, despite quotes from the player the story was denied by his agent.
This season the former Hapoel Beer Sheva defender has started nine matches for Celtic but in 18 months at the club has been unable to put in a regular run of appearances.
Today’s @ScotMailSport back page… pic.twitter.com/5gA9e2yJCF
— Sportsmail (@ScotMailSport) January 23, 2021
Stephen McGowan of the Daily Mail reports:
Homesick full-back Hatem Abd Elhamed is expected to return to Israel soon, while Christopher Jullien remains a long-term absentee through injury and Shane Duffy has been an erratic presence at centre-half.
The same report expects Oostende to sign Jack Hendry for the £1.75m fee in his loan agreement.
Celtic paid Beer Sheva £1.6m for Elhamed in July 2019, after losing Mikael Lustig and Cristian Gamboa he went straight into the team at right-back.
Jeremie Frimpong and Kris Ajer have been played at right-back in recent times as well as Tony Ralston who played at home to Livingston while 13 players self isolated.
With the transfer market virtually stagnant it is unlikely that Celtic would get much of a fee for Elhamed this month with a loan until the summer probably a more likely option.
2 many #fakenews in the last weeks.
HATEM is Proud to be a @CelticFC guy and he will do everything to get his place in the team ? pic.twitter.com/inkoSYYzIo— Dudu Dahan (@dududahan555) December 31, 2020
