One of the most interesting aspects of Celtic’s selection policy in recent weeks has been what has happened to Hatem Abd Elhamed.
The right-back has gone from playing in every match for the Hoops to only featuring in European games. His last domestic appearance for the Hoops was as a late substitute in a 3-1 win over Kilmarnock back in September.
Played in memorable European victory
Since then though, the £1.6 million man hasn’t played a minute of the last five domestic games. Despite this, he has continued to start for the Hoops in the Europa League. He played in the 2-1 win over Lazio.
Now with the Hoops set to face Hibs in the Betfred Cup semi-final on Saturday, it will be intriguing to see if the player returns to domestic action.
The Hoops do have other options at right-back of course, both Moritz Bauer and Jeremie Frimpong have featured for the side in recent weeks.
Replacement has impressed
Of those two, Frimpong has been the most impressive. He has performed very well for the Hoops. However, perhaps Neil Lennon might feel that it is too soon to select such a young player in a cup semi-final.
Another aspect that could be taken into account is the fact that the Hoops play Lazio in the Europa League on Thursday.
Elhamed seems certain to start in that game. Perhaps that will come into Neil Lennon’s thinking for the Hibs game.
When it all boils down to it, Elhamed is Celtic’s first choice right-back. It just seems a bit odd that he hasn’t played in any of Celtic’s last five domestic matches.
However, results for the most part have been good, so you can’t really find fault with Neil Lennon’s logic. It will be very interesting to see if he returns to the Celtic line-up though. If he does, hopefully his performance helps the Hoops reach the cup final.
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