Neil Lennon has hinted that Wednesday night could once again be too soon for Christopher Jullien’s fitness levels.
The towering centre-back has still to make his competitive bow for the champions, despite signing over three weeks ago. He hadn’t trained a single session during pre-season before arriving at Parkhead. Therefore, it was always going to take him some time to get up to speed.
He did manage around an hour against Rennes in a pre-season friendly last Saturday at Celtic Park. But supporters continue to wait for the Frenchman to be added to the back-line for more serious encounters.
But Lennon, speaking in the Scottish Sun, admitted that he still has a bit of work to go, whilst admitting that he could still be in contention to face Nomme Kalju if things go well.
“Christopher has only played 50-odd minutes since last May. He has only been around two or three weeks, and after the Rennes game you could tell there was a bit of rust there.
“Christopher will be fitter and sharper for another week’s work, and we are going to try and get a bounce game to give him 90 minutes in that.
“Whether we start him against Kalju on Wednesday is something we will have to gauge as we go along. It will also depend on whether we get someone else in.”
Jullien’s fitness levels continuing to grow
You could be forgiven for thinking that Lennon doesn’t sound too keen on throwing Jullien in on Wednesday. He clearly still isn’t up to speed in the Celtic manager’s eyes, and no risks look likely to be taken.
Of course, he was massively impressive against Rennes in his Celtic Park debut last week. He strolled his hour on the field, and showed good composure on the ball as well as terrific defensive awareness too. When he’s up to speed, he looks like being a key cog for Lennon.
So what does that mean for Wednesday night? You’re instantly thinking to yourself that Jozo Simunovic and Nir Bitton could be the way to go. But Celtic do have until 24 hours before the Kalju clash to register a new signing.
Lennon touched on that in his comments, and with Hatem Abd Elhamed closing in on a Parkhead move (Daily Record), it will be interesting to see if he’s thrown into the mix.
Overall, however, the defence is slowly getting stronger with Jullien’s continued improvement and the potential arrival of Elhamed.
No risks should be taken in any of these Champions League qualifiers. Therefore, it would be a surprise to see Jullien line up at Parkhead on Wednesday night.
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