JOHN KENNEDY says he doesn’t know whether Celtic will be unable to call upon Odsonne Edouard for their Champions League qualifiers, assuming the French striker is still at the club when they roll around.
Edouard, who is subject to transfer interest from Leicester City and Southampton, is likely to be called up by France under-21 manager Sylvain Ripoll for the Olympics in Tokyo, with their group matches starting on July 22nd.
Celtic’s first Champions League qualifying tie is due to take place on either the 20th or 21st, meaning they could be without their star striker.
“I don’t know yet,” said Kennedy. “It’s something that I heard of recently and it will be a big call, something to be spoken about.
“There’s been no discussion between myself or anyone at the club yet because it’s all new and there’s no definitive answer on it yet.”
There is also no further clarity on the future of Edouard’s fellow frontman Leigh Griffiths, who has yet to be informed over whether Celtic will activate a clause to keep him at the club for a further year.
“Leigh will speak to the club on that,” said Kennedy. “As always with all situations here, when the appointment of a new manager comes he will have a say on that as well.
“There’s not an actual definitive date on it yet. It’s not this weekend. It will be addressed when the new manager comes in.”
Meanwhile, Kennedy says that Celtic fans are likely to get another glimpse of Karamoko Dembele in action today against Hibernian at Easter Road, after the youngster got his first senior goal in the midweek rout of St Johnstone.
“Karamoko came on and was excellent,” he said. “He got his goal, which was good for him and will give him a lift.
“He’ll certainly be in the squad for tomorrow’s game and, if we can give him more minutes, then we’ll certainly do that.
“He is young and he’s still slight so we have to look after him. We brought him on for 10 minutes at Pittodrie and he got a bit longer the other night so if we can increase that again we’ll do it.
“You see some 16 and 17-year-olds who are already fully developed but Karamoko still has some growing to do on that basis. We see him on a daily basis and you have to remember that he hasn’t played much this season due to the Covid-19 restrictions.
“He probably hasn’t played a full game since the beginning of the season, really – or, at best, October with the reserve team. As a result, physically he isn’t at the stage he would be in the course of a normal season, so we’ve had to nurture him back in, but we’ve seen improvements in him at training.
“He’s getting better and that’s why we’ve given him those opportunities in the last couple of weeks.”
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