After being left out of the Celtic squad at St Mirren on Sunday to help clear his mind Liel Abada is reported to have returned to training at Lennoxtown on Wednesday.
The winger was sent on as a substitute for the last 15 minutes of last week’s win away to Hibs but made very little impact as a late penalty from Adam Idah gave Celtic three vital points.
As the players celebrated at the final whistle in front of the away support Abada was posted missing, in the centre of the Lower Stand was a large Palestine flag.
It is understandable that an Israeli would want to avoid acknowledging that flag while his country is effectively at war in Gaza but coupled with a very low key performance it drew the attention of fans.
After beating St Mirren on Sunday Rodgers confirmed that Abada was missing to clear his mind rather than for football reasons.
Late on Wednesday night the Daily Record reported:
Liel Abada is back in training with Celtic after Brendan Rodgers gave him time off to get his head right.
The manager left the Israeli international out of the Scottish Cup win over St Mirren at the weekend and post-match revealed he was mentally on point. But Record Sport understands the 22-year-old is now back with the Hoops first-team squad at Lennoxtown but it remains to be seen if he will be in the squad for the weekend home clash with Kilmarnock.
Daizen Maeda and Luis Palma started on the wings against St Mirren and are expected to be in the Starting XI on Saturday against Kilmarnock.
Yang Hyun-jun and January signing Nicolas Kuhn came off the bench against St Mirren with Rocco Vata among the unused substitutes.
On last season’s form Abada would probably go straight into the side but it is hard to make a case for him this season which leaves Rodgers with a big selection dilemma as he prepares to face Kilmarnock.
Sad to see you describe the slaughter as a “war”
If Liel Abada is a decent guy and behaves like a proper professional footballer which he is paid to do by Celtic FC then he should ‘rise above’ all this and run out in the Hoops when he’s chosen and perform at the very top of his game to show our supporters that he’s worth our support. Brendan’s reasons for going public with this may justify it but on the outside it seems to me like very poor judgement as it just puts Liel and the ‘issue’ in the spotlight.
There are many, many Israeli citizens who are absolutely against the slaughter in Gaza and find the war-monger Netanyahu as detestable as I do and it’s quite possible that Liel and his family are of such mind. I don’t know, of course but I’d like to think so. In any event if Liel performs for Celtic he’ll have the support of us all and maybe THAT is the most important point here. Come on Liel, give us some mazy runs and some terrific goals and you’ll never have to think of this again.
HH