NEIL LENNON will know today if Ryan Christie can play in the derby clash at Parkhead tomorrow afternoon.
Celtic are still monitoring Kieran Tierney’s situation at Arsenal where his manager Mikkel Arteta has refused to rule out the ex-Hoops defender from his squad to face Manchester City, as CQN reported yesterday.
The champions will be given confirmation within the next 12 hours if Christie, who was ordered to self-isolate for 14 days after it was discovered he had been in contact with Stuart Armstrong who tested positive for coronavirus while the international squad met 11 days ago for the Euro semi-final play-off against Israel at Hampden.
Both the Celt and Tierney were told to quarantine which would take them beyond their club’s weekend league fixtures.
Bizarrely, Armstrong WILL be available for Southampton this weekend after his 10 day isolation period has now expired while Christie, who has since passed two swab tests conducted by the Celtic medical team, and Tierney have been instructed to stay away.
Arteta said: “We are still having some discussions with the authorities.
“This is getting very complicated when you are sending players abroad and obviously you lose control. Some authorities have different regulations to the actual ones in the Premier League.”
Definitely out of the visit from Steven Gerrard’s Ibrix side are Nir Bitton and Hatem Elhamed, who are still in Israel after both testing positive for the virus after being on international duty.
Odsonne Edouard is due back in Scotland today after falling foul of the virus while in Paris with the France Under-21 squad.
The Hoops hierarchy reacted quickly to hire a private jet to fly Vasilis Barkas back into the country in the early hours of this morning after fears the £4.5million keeper may be left stranded in Athens by an air traffic control strike, according to the Daily Record.
The shotstopper was on the bench as Greece drew 0-0 with Kosovo in a Nations League clash on Wednesday night and had been scheduled to catch a 7am flight back to Glasgow today.
But with two days of industrial action set to begin just an hour later, Celtic forked out to ensure he wasn’t left grounded in Athens.
