Jozo Simunovic’s summer issues are a sign Celtic made a shrewd decision to release him

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It’s fair to say that Celtic didn’t receive total agreement from everyone in their support when Jozo Simunovic was released, but now it’s looking like a very shrewd decision.

The Daily Record reported yesterday that Simunovic’s injury record has halted his plans for a move to Croatian side Rijeka.

Knee issues have been a big concern for Jozo throughout his career. In fact, over his five years at Celtic Park, he missed around 100 games due to injury alone. Last season, meanwhile, he missed 28 – his second-highest tally for games missed due to injury out of all of his five years in Glasgow (Transfermarkt).

It’s no surprise that Rijeka have followed Turkish side Trabzonspor in dropping the chance to sign Simunovic (Daily Record). The truth is the centre-back simply isn’t reliable enough to be a regular.

Granted, Simunovic didn’t actually fail medicals at either of those clubs. Instead, they simply dropped their interest after doing some research into his background. But it puts our own decision over the summer into perspective.

Celtic had the option of extending Simunovic’s deal by an extra year. But you can’t look at our back-line now and say that he would’ve gotten into it.

Too many better quality players ahead of Simunovic

Is he getting in ahead of the likes of Shane Duffy, Kris Ajer, and Christopher Jullien? Should he even be ahead of Nir Bitton and Hatem Elhamed in the pecking order?

The truth is all five mentioned are more reliable to be fit and ready for action. There was simply no place for Simunovic considering we needed to strengthen our defence over the summer.

It’s also important to take into account the fact that Simunovic’s injuries weren’t getting any better. He only managed to feature on 16 occasions last term, and missed the entire first half of the campaign through injury (Transfermarkt).

Had there been signs of a recovery from Simunovic then fair enough, perhaps an extra year or two should’ve been offered. But at a time when clubs are needing to save costs where they can, you can’t blame Celtic for looking at Jozo and thinking his time was up.

Duffy’s arrival is evidence we made the right decision, whilst Simunovic’s struggles to find a new club only strengthens that idea.

Hopefully, someone takes a punt on the Bosnian international before the season is really into its stride. He always gave his best for the Hoops and left with a superb total of 11 winners’ medals. He deserves someone to take a chance on him, but Celtic ultimately made the right decision (albeit a difficult one).