Lennon left frustrated as injury crisis hits Celtic

Neil Lennon is facing up to an injury crisis as he prepares to return to the Inverness Caledonian Stadium, where Celtic’s title hopes were extinguished by a painful defeat at the end of last season.

Lennon yesterday expressed disquiet about the way his players are handled when away with their countries on international duty. South Korea full-back Cha Du Ri has returned from the recent international break nursing a hamstring injury after featuring for his country against the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. He is now a likely absentee against Inverness today as Celtic, who trail Rangers by nine points at the top of the Scottish Premier League, seek to peg back their rivals for a few hours at least.

Lennon has been left with only one fit first-team centre-half in Daniel Majstorovic, with Thomas Rogne, Glenn Loovens and Charlie Mulgrew also sidelined.

“We just seem to be going through a phase of picking up these injuries,” he said. “I’m not happy with the way some of the players are treated when they go away on international duty, but that’s for another day.”

Lennon did, though, express disappointment with the circumstances surrounding Cha’s injury. “Cha played two games,” he said. “Against the Emirates, he felt really tight in the hamstring afterwards. He made them aware of that but they taped him up and he played 90 minutes against Lebanon. He has then travelled half-way across the world and is back feeling very tight and sore on the hamstring.”

Given Celtic’s troubles against Inverness last season the manager is hesitant about throwing in an inexperienced youngster such as Marcus Fraser. The 17 year-old made his debut alongside Daniel Majstorovic against Rennes this month but is likely to be on the bench. Lennon might ask midfielder Victor Wanyama to step back to partner Majstorovic, who was the subject of praise from his manager yesterday despite having been credited with an own-goal in Sweden’s 1-0 loss to England.