Celtic’s Vakoun Issouf Bayo’s hamstring update is positive

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Vakoun Issouf Bayo’s hamstring doesn’t appear to be in as bad a state as was first feared.

The Scottish Sun believes that the tweak he felt on pre-season with Celtic will only keep him out for around 10 days. That could see him eye up the second-leg of the Sarajevo tie at Celtic Park next week.

Neil Lennon told Celtic TV after the pre-season tour that Bayo had felt something in his hamstring. It came after he had scored the winner against Wiener Sportclub on match-day two of our pre-season tour. Everyone then expected Bayo to face St Gallen in the final friendly, but he was noticeably omitted from the squad.

Lennon was very much trying to push the message of having to wait and see on Bayo. But, even though he’ll miss the first leg of our opening Champions League qualifier in Bosnia, this could’ve been so much worse.

Bayo’s hamstring cost him last season

If you remember it, Bayo took a nasty hamstring knock when away on international duty with the Ivory Coast under-23s last season. He had to come off, and subsequently would miss the final three months of the season. It was a nasty blow, and cost him making any impact on the campaign.

If the same happened again and Bayo was out for months, his Celtic career could’ve been in doubt. Had he missed the first-half of this season or anywhere close to it, the pressure would’ve really been on him. Added to that, we would only have had two fit strikers, and it would’ve forced us back into the market.

But the fact he’s only out for 10 days eases all of those fears. He should be back at the very latest for the second qualifying round of the Champions League should we make it.

Losing ground on a rampant Leigh Griffiths and first choice Odsonne Edouard wouldn’t have been ideal for Bayo. And when he returns, it will allow him to continue the momentum he picked up against Wiener nine days ago.

Bayo’s early recovery hasn’t really been talked about much for the real boost that it is. It’s a massive relief to hopefully be getting him back so soon after such a worrying update from Lennon.

When he returns, it’ll be all systems go, and he could do with a promising start to the campaign. At the very least, he’ll have a chance to do just that without injury.