CELTIC will be without Liel Abada and Nir Bitton for religious reasons when they face Real Betis tonight, with manager Ange Postecoglou confirming that captain Callum McGregor will also be absent through injury.
The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur ends this evening, and Postecoglou explained that Abada’s faith requires him to sit out of the trip to Spain.
It means that Celtic go into the fixture missing a host of important first-team players, with Kyogo Furuhashi, James Forrest and Greg Taylor - who will require surgery on his shoulder injury - already ruled out.
“It’s a fairly significant day,” said Postecoglou. “It’s his religion and rightly so. He’s not able to participate.
“Yom Kippur is a fairly significant day in the holy calendar for them. It’s a day where you’re not allowed to participate in events, a day of reflection for them.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened in my career, where a player's religious beliefs have meant that football doesn’t take the priority we all think it should maybe sometimes in life. That’s the case for Liel and for Nir tomorrow night and we’re very respectful of that.
“As soon as the fixtures came out, we kind of knew. The date doesn’t change.”
Postecoglou will wait until after Celtic have arrived in Seville before making a call on who will take the armband from McGregor, with both Tom Rogic and then Joe Hart taking turns to wear it on Saturday against Ross County, with no official vice-captain yet in place.
“I haven’t selected one yet,” said Postecoglou. “When you look around the group it’s a pretty new group, there aren’t many who have been around for too long.
“From my perspective it’s about who’s going to be who’s going to feel the most comfortable in the role. The boys who have the most experience of the club I think will help us [tonight].
“It was a bit of a relay every time someone came off [on Saturday]. It might be the same thing – like musical chairs and the one left ends up being captain.”
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