Injury problems continue to mount for Lennon as Loovens joins Bangura on sidelines

Loovens limped out of yesterday’s 2-1 win over Aberdeen at Celtic Park with a hamstring problem, while Bangura was unable to take any part in the game after sustaining knee damage in training on Saturday.

Celtic manager Neil Lennon, already without Emilio Izaguirre, Kelvin Wilson and Scott Brown because of long-term injuries, is concerned that he is about to learn of further disruption to his efforts to field a settled starting line-up.

“Both Loovens and Bangura will have scans on Monday, and we don’t know if they are going to be out for a significant length of time,” said Lennon. “Glenn was feeling his hamstring and had to come off. It’s a problem he has had before.

“Bangura’s knee is swollen up and has to be checked out, too. We are up against it with injuries at the moment. But it’s just part and parcel of the game, and I was really pleased with the lads who managed to play another 90 minutes today after playing against Rennes in the Europa League on Thursday.”

Celtic were made to work hard for their first victory in any competition since 24 September; stand-in captain Charlie Mulgrew netting a 72nd-minute winner after Ryan Jack had cancelled out Ki Sung Yueng’s first-half opener.

With SPL leaders Rangers having stretched their lead over Celtic to 13 points with victory over Hearts a couple of hours earlier, the pressure on Lennon’s side to win was intense.

“I thought our performance was alright,” he said. “We had good control of the game and scored a great first goal. We then lost Glenn to injury and lost a bit of momentum.

“We didn’t start the second half as well as I would have liked and we lost a poor goal. I would much prefer it if we were keeping clean sheets, which is something we took a lot of pride in last season.

“But we should have won the game more comfortably, we created plenty of chances. There were balls flashing across the face of goal, and we needed to be more clinical in those situations. We were not at our brilliant best today, but I was pleased with the performance and the result. When it all clicks, as I’m sure it will soon, someone is going to take a real beating off us.”

Lennon praised match winner Mulgrew, who finished the game with Daniel Majstorovic as his central defensive partner following the departure of Loovens.

“Charlie has had a good week or so,” said Lennon. “He scored the equaliser against Kilmarnock last Saturday when we came back from 3-0 down, then set up our goal in the 1-1 draw against Rennes in France.

“He has been really consistent for us this season and this is the first time he has been captain of a winning side, so he will be pleased with his work today.

“The improvement in Charlie since he came back to the club last year is huge. He brings good balance and composure to the team. He needs to learn a few things, but he is an intelligent footballer and will continue to get better.” South Korean midfielder Ki, meanwhile, revealed that the Celtic players have set themselves an ambitious target of winning their next nine SPL fixtures in order to intensify their pursuit of Rangers prior to the second Old Firm meeting of the season, at Parkhead, on 28 December.

“We don’t worry about the points gap between ourselves and Rangers at the moment,” said Ki. “We should win every game we play from now until Rangers come to Celtic Park. That is our target.

“There is pressure on us, because of the expectations at this club, but we are all international players and have to prove to our supporters that we can win the league. We should have won more games than we have so far this season. We just lost a little bit of confidence by dropping points in games we should have won. But we have a lot of games left and we still believe we can win the league.”