‘KNUCKLE DOWN,’ ORDERS LENNY

NEIL LENNON has told everyone at Celtic they “must be strict and knuckle down” during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Hoops manager, who is preparing his players for tomorrow’s Premiership encounter against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park, emphasised the dangers if anyone fails to adhere to government guidelines.

Two Aberdeen players have tested positive for Covid-19, with a total of eight Dons stars now self-isolating, following a night-out in a city pub on Saturday evening. The result is today’s match against St Johnstone in Perth being postponed.

Lennon, speaking to the Celtic website, said: “It’s obviously a very unfortunate incident and has some serious ramifications for the game. It’s a reminder to all the players and the staff that we have to be on our guard all of the time and follow the protocols in the right way.

“The players accept we need to tighten things up. We need to see how it goes over the next few weeks. We don’t want a shutdown again, not just in sport but culturally and socially.

“We want people to have some sort of life. In terms of the players and the staff and myself, we need to be strict and knuckle down.

“I think we need to bite the bullet until things settle down a bit more. I think the players here have, in the main, been excellent. They’ve had two rounds of testing now for the last six/seven weeks and, thankfully, they’ve all come back negative.”

Lennon added: “Regardless of what’s at stake this season, we’ve had a long lay-off from football. Nobody wants that and we certainly don’t want to go back to that. In the main, I think the country has handled the situation as well as anyone possibly could have.

“We’ve opened up a little bit and we have to be careful we don’t have any more spikes.”

The Dons are due to play at Parkhead week today and the game was given the go-ahead by authorities last night, as CQN reported.