Celtic defender Jack Hendry's Melbourne City continues to play amidst health crisis

By David Walton

March 16, 2020

As the current health crisis around the world continues to worsen, one Celtic player is seeing his club continue to play regularly.

Football in Scotland and largely in Britain has come to a stop. The same can’t be said of the A-League and Jack Hendry’s Melbourne City however.

The Celtic-owned centre-back, who signed for Melbourne on loan back in January, is currently sidelined with medial collateral ligament damage. Therefore, it will still be a substantial period of time before he’s back in action (BBC).

Jack Hendry in action for Melbourne City (Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

But his loan club were in action as recently as Saturday. Melbourne secured a 1-1 draw with Western Sydney over the weekend. It leaves them 10 points behind Sydney FC at the top of the A-League.

However, Sky Sports have reported that the A-League will now be played behind closed doors for the rest of the season. Both Wellington Pheonix and Melbourne Victory, who played in New Zealand, will be quarantined for 14 days upon returning to Australia, but the A-League has instead come up with a compressed schedule as the players continue to feature.

Celtic may want to keep tabs on Hendry’s movements

The situation regarding the health crisis in Australia isn’t getting much better, with the latest number of cases in the country coming in at a reported 350 (Sydney Morning Herald).

Therefore, Celtic may want to keep tabs on what Hendry has been up to in Oz. After all, just because he’s injured doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been attending their games. Even that could be risky.

Football in Scotland has been shut down for a reason. Australia, meanwhile, have more reported cases of the disease than Scotland yet have still been playing football. That could be a slight concern for Celtic, who have a duty to look out for Hendry’s best interests.

Celtic defender Jack Hendry (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)

The move to play behind closed doors is at least a welcome one if they have to continue. Going by Melbourne manager Erick Mombaerts’ update two weeks ago, Hendry could be three or four weeks away from a return to action (The Scottish Sun).

However, with the A-League season ending in May, Hendry won’t have much time to make an impact. From a Celtic perspective, just ensuring he’s safe during his recovery phase will be important.

As things stand though, the Australian top tier continues to soldier on regardless of the current pandemic.