CELTIC face a sweat over the availability of captain Scott Brown for Saturday’s Betfred Cup semi-final against his former club Hibernian after the 34-year-old was forced off during the 2-0 win against St Mirren with a thigh injury. While manager Neil Lennon remains hopeful of having his talisman available for the Hampden showdown, he won’t have a full prognosis until Brown reports for training this morning.
“Scott tweaked his thigh but he isn’t feeling too bad,” said Lennon. “He come off straight away so there wasn’t a chance of making it worse. We won’t take any chances with him. We’ll have to wait and see how it settles overnight but we’re hoping he will be okay. It is not like him to come off so he obviously felt something there.”
While this victory kept the Parkhead side ahead of Rangers on goal difference, there was further bad news in relation to Vakoun Bayo. The Ivorian, who reported an issue after training on Monday, is to see a specialist next week and is likely to be side-lined for six weeks at the most congested period of the season.
While Leigh Griffiths is expected back in training today, it all leaves Celtic more reliant than ever upon Odsonne Edouard. “The news on Bayo wasn’t good,” said Lennon. “He may require surgery – he is seeing a specialist I think on Monday. If he does need surgery then we are looking at six weeks. Leigh is back training tomorrow but we will have to see how his condition is. It could take him a week or so .. or knowing him he could come banging on my door and saying ‘put me in’.”
With full backs Hatem Elhamed, Jeremie Frimpong and Boli Bolingoli rested, Lennon said Greg Taylor could be happy with a debut two months after his arrival from Kilmarnock. “It was a good debut, solid. Just what you expect from Greg.”
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