Celtic midfielder Nir Bitton looks unlikely to feature against FC Astana on Wednesday night after picking up what was a suspected medial ligament injury in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Barcelona in the International Champions Cup in Dublin on Saturday evening.
A clash with Turkish midfielder Arda Turan left Bitton floored inside the opening minute of the game, but he continued to play until the interval, with the time on his feet possibly exacerbating the injury.
“To be honest, the first 10 seconds I felt that I couldn’t stay on,” he said. “But then, when your body’s warm and the adrenalin, it’s a big game and you what to play, I carried on. Maybe I should’ve gone off. But I didn’t want to. Hopefully I’ll be okay for Wednesday. It’s still a bit swollen, but we will see.”
READ MORE: Efe Ambrose has achieved more than most of us and so booing him is out of order
Bitton is the latest in a long list of casualties for Celtic; Jozo Simunovic, Dedryck Boyata and Erik Sviatchenko have all be sidelined with injuries, while Kieran Tierney missed the game against Barcelona on a precautionary level. Kolo Toure could be pitched into the game against Astana, despite having yet to get any game time since arriving at the club.
Bitton hinted that he would play through the pain of the injury if he could, but he will await the results of a scan before an decision is made regarding his involvement in the second leg of the UEFA third round Champions League qualifier.
“If it was my decision then I would play like that,” he said. “But it’s not my decision. It’s not about me it’s about the team. If I don’t think I can help the team if I’m not 100 per cent then it’s not fair to the other players for me to play.
“Hopefully, we’ll see today [Monday] how I feel and that I have a chance.”
“It’s too early to say now about my ankle. I don’t know just now.”
Bitton has been linked with a move away from Celtic this summer with Espanyol credited with an interest in the midfielder, while his agent also said there was interest from south of the border.
The 24-year-old signed a five-year deal with Celtic at the beginning of last season to ensure that any move will be lucrative for the club. The player himself, though, was dismissive of the speculation.
“To be honest I don’t think of talk of other clubs,” he said. “I’m really happy where I am now. Celtic is a big club, it’s a big honour for me to be part of this club. As long as I’m here I will try to do my best and hopefully I will stay for many years.”
Asked if he had been given assurances about his long-term future at the club by Brendan Rodgers, Bitton said: “No, I don’t think Brendan speaks to any player in this way. It’s not about specific players, it’s about Celtic as a team.
“Like I say, I don’t think about these kind of things. It’s good for newspapers, but I don’t think about it. As long as I’m here I’ll try to do my best and hopefully I will stay with Celtic for many years.
“I play for one of the biggest clubs in Europe, so I don’t think about anything else. As long as you’re part of Celtic you don’t think about other clubs. This club gave me the opportunity to show myself, that’s it.”
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 here