Lennon’s injury crisis comes to the surface

CELTIC are investigating the state of the playing surfaces at their Lennoxtown training base after manager Neil Lennon and his backroom staff became concerned by the number of injuries players suffer there.

Thomas Rogne became the latest to develop a problem when he injured his hamstring at Lennoxtown on Thursday, meaning he is unlikely to be fit enough to play against Caledonian Thistle today. Kelvin Wilson, Glenn Loovens and Charlie Mulgrew are also unavailable. When asked who was left to play in central defence in Inverness today, Lennon replied: “Billy McNeill”. Daniel Majstorovic and Victor Wanyama will cross their fingers and hope to get the nod ahead of the club’s 71-year-old ambassador.

Rogne has had previous hamstring problems since joining Celtic and others have also suffered soft tissue injuries, possibly as a consequence of the pitches at Lennoxtown. The club opened its £8m base four years ago and the facility includes three UEFA-standard training and match pitches and an artificial surface.

‘We are seriously looking at the pitches up there, as to whether they play a factor in what’s happening,” said Lennon. “All of a sudden we are picking up these soft tissue injuries. We have to seriously look at that, but we can’t train anywhere else. We had one pitch available to train on yesterday and it was a pretty intense session. It might have something to do with the fact the pitch is quite slippy at the minute and the acceleration and deceleration puts a strain on the muscles. It’s something we’re looking at.

“We were at Barrowfield [their previous training ground, near Parkhead] today. The surface is a lot drier and a wee bit firmer. It might be the case that we might have to train there for a little while until we get the pitches sorted out up at Lennoxtown. But listen, this is only a theory we are looking at.”

Lennoxtown is not the only possible problem on Lennon’s mind. He is upset at what he regards as some mistreatment of his players while they are away representing their countries. ‘We just seem to be going through a phase of picking up these injuries. I’m not happy with the way some of the players are treated on international duty. Cha Du Ri played two games [for South Korea]. Against the United Arab Emirates he felt really tight in the hamstring afterwards. He made them aware of that, but they taped him up and he played 90 minutes against Lebanon. He then travelled halfway across the world and is back feeling very tight and sore on the hamstring. It looks like he’ll be out.”

His fellow Korean, Ki Sung-Yueng, had to endure the same journey, “when he clearly wasn’t fit to travel, let alone play”, said Lennon. Ki went down with a virus and had two spells in a Korean hospital before returning to Glasgow. “It is time wasted when he could have been here and had us looking after him, but we are bound by FIFA regulations to let him go. It is very frustrating. We do all we can to help these countries, but at times I don’t think it is reciprocated.

“It is certainly something to consider when it comes to signing players from that area again, the amount of travelling these guys do. That’s three or four international breaks already this season and there has not been one when we have had a full complement of players coming back. Cha was out for six weeks after one of them.”

Ki is a doubt today while Scott Brown, Emilio Izaguirre and Mark Wilson remain out and Mohamed Bangura may need surgery to resolve an ongoing knee problem. Joe Ledley is available again, but Lennon admitted their numerous absentees would encourage Inverness. “Everybody fancies it against Celtic,” he said. “People might think our team is a bit soft and might not fancy it, although in the Motherwell game a couple of weeks ago we dug in, played very strongly and won. We are going to need to do that again in Inverness.”

The manager attempted to bring some clarity to the club’s failed attempt to sign Bolo Zenden. The former Dutch international winger trained at Lennoxtown and believed he had done enough to earn a deal, only to allege that the Parkhead board of directors overruled Lennon and refused to sanction an offer.

Lennon insisted the issue had been perfectly straightforward, and that the club had been unable to agree terms with the 35-year-old former Barcelona, Liverpool and Chelsea player. Celtic were wary of committing a significant wage to another veteran star after having their fingers burned by Freddie Ljungberg’s short, expensive and unsuccessful stay.

“I liked Bolo and said we’d hoped to give him a contract. That’s the way I left it, but I spoke to Peter [Lawwell, the chief executive] and we couldn’t agree terms and that was the end of it. We are mindful of the fact we have January coming up. We didn’t want another Ljungberg situation, where we offer a lot of money. Zenden’s playing record was very good but we are mindful of the fact that Freddie didn’t play as much as we’d have liked after coming in around this time last year. But in terms of the board making the decision, that’s not true at all.”

A contract, meanwhile, has been offered to 20-year-old trialist Andre Blackman. If he agrees terms the left-back – who played for Bristol City and AFC Wimbledon after being a youth trainee with Arsenal and Tottenham – will commit to Celtic for the rest of this campaign, with an option to stay for the whole of next season.

n Celtic yesterday announced their support for the White Ribbon Scotland campaign to help end violence against women.