Neil Lennon confirms Mohamed Elyounoussi won’t make Rangers clash

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Neil Lennon has confirmed that Celtic attacker Mohamed Elyounoussi won’t feature in either of our final two games of 2019.

The Celts round of the calendar year with games against St. Mirren and Rangers as we aim to extend the gap at the top of the Premiership to even more than five points.

But Lennon’s men will have to do it without summer recruit Mohamed Elyounoussi. The Norwegian has only played 45 minutes of football since early November – in the Betfred Cup final against Rangers.

But he won’t be around to face the Gers this Sunday after the Northern Irishman confirmed the disappointing, but not totally surprising, news to press on Tuesday.

“It will probably be January,” he told the Evening Express of Elyounoussi’s return date.

“He won’t be fit for the Rangers game as he is still feeling it and he hasn’t done any work really. We will have to leave that one for now.”

Lennon has learned Hampden lesson on Elyounoussi

The news of Elyounoussi missing out the Rangers clash is of course frustrating but it’s hardly the end of the world. It seems bizarre to say that about a player who was in such red hot form prior to his injury, but our other options in the position make his loss a little easier to bare.

Mikey Johnston is the obvious candidate to slide onto the left-wing in both upcoming matches, although Lennon has preferred to play James Forrest there in recent weeks.

It is pretty refreshing to see Lennon admitting defeat on Elyounoussi’s fitness though. The Norwegian has been a real talisman for us since joining on loan from Southampton, but he’s not completely indispensable.

We rushed him back for the aforementioned Betfred Cup final earlier this month and he struggled badly, to the extent where he was removed at half-time. Lennon is clearly not keen to make the same mistake this weekend and has instead given Elyounoussi the rest of the year off.

With a three week break to come and a warm training camp in Dubai, that seems like a pretty sensible decision.