CELTIC’S £4.3million misfit Maik Nawrocki faces a transfer window in limbo.
The Polish central defender, a big-money recruit from Legia Warsaw in the summer of 2023, is clearly not in the first-team thoughts of Brendan Rodgers.
Nawrocki has made only a six-minute cameo appearance for the champions this season when he came on for Stephen Welsh in the team’s 5-2 victory in the Premier Sports League Cup-tie against Championship outfit Falkirk at Parkhead in September.
The former German-born Under-21 international was a no-show in the squad that beat Rangers in the showpiece showdown and was overlooked for the starting eleven in the goalless draw with Dundee United at Tannadice on Sunday.
ON THE BALL…Maik Nawrocki in a rare first-team outing for Celtic.
Regular choices Cameron Carter-Vickers and Auston Trusty were both ruled out with illness, but Nawrocki was snubbed as Rodgers opted for Welsh and Liam Scales as his pivotal pairing with the 23-year-old outcast remaining on the bench.
It is likely the centre-back, who turned out a mere seven times in the Hoops’ successful Premiership campaign in Rodgers’ comeback season, will be allowed to leave on loan when the window re-opens in a week’s time.
Nawrocki has been linked with a return to Poland with Slack Wroclaw, but that door has been slammed shut by the club’s sports director Rafal Grodzicki, who told the Daily Record: “I can assure you that we weren’t even interested in this player.
“We have many central defenders in the club and our priority for strengthening are in other positions.”
It’s now a question of playing the waiting game for the back-four operator who is under contract at Parkhead until June 2028.
Wingers Yang Hyun-jun and Luis Palma, who both failed to impress during their stints at Tayside at the weekend, are in a similar situation.
They need game-time and, like Nawrocki, that does not look likely at the champions in the second half of this season.
