Celtic winger Marian Shved has picked up an ankle injury while on international duty with his native Ukraine.
Andriy Shevchenko’s side travel to Lithuania on Saturday night in Euro 2020 qualifying before hosting a friendly against Nigeria. But Shved will play no part in either game after withdrawing from the squad.
The Ukrainian FA said: “Unfortunately, Marian Shved has returned to his club after suffering an ankle injury and will not travel to Lithuania.” (The Scottish Sun)
The injury caps off a pretty miserable couple of months for Shved who has appeared only once competitively since joining from Karpaty Lviv.
Shved did mark that single appearance, off the bench against Nomme Kalju, with a goal and that convinced Celtic fans that they should be seeing him more often.
However, it doesn’t seem like things are quite working off the pitch for the 22-year-old and he was issued a rallying call by Neil Lennon just last week.
“He just needs to up his tempo and his work,” the Northern Irishman said. (Football Scotland)
“It’s still, again, an adaptation period for him. He’s 21, in a new country and doesn’t speak great English.
“So, we know we’ve got a good player on our hands and we’ll see more of him as the season progresses.”
Shved needs to get over injury quickly
It’s far too early to be getting worried about Shved. Moving from one side of Europe to the other at the age of 22 can’t be easy, so it’s only natural that he’s going to take some time to settle in.
For all the options we have on the left-wing, we don’t have too many players on the opposite flank. James Forrest has been outstanding over the past 18 months but one injury to him and we may be in a bit of bother.
That’s why it’s so important that Shved gets up to speed as soon as possible. Celtic ran Forrest into the ground last season and a repeat this term would be ill advised.
Hopefully Shved can get over his injury worries and make an impact at Celtic before the end of the year.
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