Neil Lennon has made it pretty clear, he doesn’t expect Nir Bitton to be fit to play for his country this week BUT Israel have called him up anyway.
Nir went off injured early against Sarajevo and missed out on the St Johnstone game as a result.
While the Celtic manager believes the player will recover in time for the Glasgow Derby — he doesn’t imagine Nir will be ready.
“I don’t think he’ll be fit to play for them. I reckon he won’t be ready for that until the first game after the break.” Neil Lennon told SunSport.
There could be a club vs country conflict coming up if Nir does play and it exacerbates his injury. Even just calling the Celtic utility man up for international duty could be seen as reckless given the current pandemic.
A player will always want to play, it’s up to his coaches — both domestic and international — to make sure Nir’s health and fitness is the priority.
Scotland will be up against Israel in the Euro playoffs and while we’re likely to see Elhamed up against some of our Celtic bhoys on international duty, we hope Nir won’t be doing the same.
What a waste of time internationals are especially in the current climate, surely bigger risk to travel between countries,some who have a very high risk factor? Common sense should have prevailed but alas money rules the roost!