Skipper Scott Brown will discover on Monday if he requires surgery on an abductor problem, according to Celtic manager Neil Lennon.
The Hoops midfielder is waiting on results from a specialist and if an operation is necessary, it would likely mean him missing the second leg of the Champions League tie at Juventus on March 6 and Scotland's World Cup qualifying double-header against Wales and Serbia later next month.
Ahead of the visit of Dundee in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League on Sunday, Lennon said: "The specialist is coming back with his prognosis. He may need surgery but we won't know that until Monday, the specialist is on holiday at the minute.
"We are expecting the specialist to say he may need surgery so as soon as we get him a slot, if that is the case, then we will get it done.
"He is a very important player, the captain, but the squad is strong."
Lennon also revealed that Thomas Rogne has rejected the offer of a new deal. The Norwegian defender's contract is up at the end of the season.
"We have made him an offer and it has been refused," Lennon said. "We may go back to him with another offer but there are no guarantees on that.
"Obviously we don't want it to fester on, we would like to get a result one way or the other.
"Thomas is a good player, we would like to keep him around and there is a good chance of him playing on Sunday.
"He has had to be patient because Efe Ambrose, Charlie Mulgrew and Kelvin Wilson have done exceptionally well, but whenever Thomas has come in he has never let us down."
On midfielder Paddy McCourt, whose current deal also expires in the summer, Lennon said: "We will talk to Paddy and his representatives over the next couple of months."
Meanwhile, Brown and defender Mikael Lustig will be missing again for Celtic's Clydesdale Bank Premier League game against Dundee at Parkhead on Sunday.
Brown has seen a specialist about his abductor problem and will discover on Monday if he requires surgery while Lustig is out with a thigh injury.
Greece striker Georgios Samaras is back after recovering from a hamstring injury but defender Charlie Mulgrew is a doubt with a glute problem.
Provisional squad: Forster, Matthews, Wilson, Rogne, Mulgrew, Ambrose, Izaguirre, Forrest, Kayal, Ledley, Wanyama, Rogic, Stokes, Watt, Miku, Lassad, Zaluska, Samaras, McGeouch, Chalmers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article