Bayer Leverkusen announce 5-player injury update days before Celtic game

By David Walton

November 23, 2021

Bayer Leverkusen look set for a series of surprising injury boosts for their Europa League encounter against Celtic on Thursday night.

Heading into the contest, there had been doubts over a host of their top stars. The likes of Patrick Schick, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Charles Aranguiz, and Lucas Alario are only some of the concerns they’ve had as injuries rippled through their squad.

Karim Bellarabi also missed the game against VFL Bochum at the weekend despite being back in training.

And on their official website, they’ve today announced that Bellarabi, Schick, Fosu-Mensah, Alario, and Aranguiz all took part in training as they recover from their respective injury problems.

Bellarabi and Fosu-Mensah took part in a training game, whilst Schick, Alario, and Aranguiz were also out boosting their fitness levels in full training.

It remains unclear who will be deemed fit enough to come into contention for the game against Celtic.

Bayer Leverkusen about to receive some big squad boosts; will they make it before Celtic?

So Leverkusen may not be as weak with regards to squad depth as we were perhaps hoping. However, it’s unlikely that Seoane will want to rush them back.

It’s like the prospect of Carl Starfelt and Tom Rogic returning for Celtic. Even if they return to action and are deemed fit enough to play, you couldn’t truly see Ange Postecoglou throwing them into the mix just yet. It’s likely he’ll wait for a domestic match to ease them back into things.

Hopefully Seoane is of the same mindset. Then again, Celtic have something that Leverkusen don’t heading into this one – decent form.

Let’s not kid ourselves, as good as Bayer are, they’ve been struggling in terms of results. Not so much on the European stage where they have 10 points out of 12, but domestically they’ve been producing Jekyll and Hyde stuff. They’ve only won 2 of their last 8 matches for example.

So there’s reason to be optimistic for Celtic ahead of what’s going to be a crucial game for our Europa League qualifying hopes.

As for Leverkusen’s injury boosts? Hoepfully Thursday comes too soon for most of them.

In other news, Report: Club hold failed SFA talks about Celtic fixture after decision left them “shocked”