NEIL LENNON has revealed an admission from Odsonne Edouard that he was struggling with fatigue was behind his decision to leave his star man out of the win over Livingston, but he hopes to have the striker available for Thursday night’s Europa League tie against Riga.
Edouard was left on the bench for the 3-2 victory at Celtic Park after telling his manager on Friday that he was tired, but Lennon refuted suggestions that transfer speculation had unsettled the player.
He did admit though that a contingency plan is in place should a bid arrive for the young Frenchman that the club can’t refuse.
“He was away with France and played two 90 minutes when he was away with them,” Edouard said.
“He had missed the previous three games for us before that.
“I spoke to him on Friday and he was struggling so you have to look after the player. Hopefully he will be fresh for Thursday which is a very important game for us.
“We do not want to sell. We have had no bids or confirmed interest in him. I am hoping come the end of the window he will still be a Celtic player.
“He is not causing any problems behind the scenes. He was honest enough to say he was struggling, and I take his word on that.
“He is not for sale. A lot of this rumbling behind the scene is speculation just now. There is a contingency and there will be a lot of talk about Odsonne.
“We just want him fit and ready for Thursday.”
Livingston manager Gary Holt meanwhile was aggrieved not to have earned at least a point, particularly as he felt that Celtic’s second goal on the day should have been ruled out.
“There's big disappointment that we didn't get more,” Holt said. “Celtic's second goal was offside. You need decisions to go your way here, that's the fine lines.
“We don't play for offside, but the backline did their job. We could have still cleared it, but you need help here.
“For all our good play – and we were brave on the ball – those fine lines went against us.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel