Martin O’Neill has confirmed that Arne Engels will be sidelined for Celtic until the international break at the end of March.
The 73-year-old surprised supporters by omitting the Belgian midfielder from the matchday squad for Sunday’s Scottish Premiership encounter with Kilmarnock.
However, speaking before kick-off, O’Neill clarified that Engels is facing a spell out of action. The 22-year-old has been a regular this season, starting 17 league fixtures, but Celtic will now have to cope without him for more than a month.
Engels was forced off after just 32 minutes in the recent victory over Livingston, and it has since emerged that the injury is more serious than initially hoped.
The midfielder has been a vital presence in the centre of the park throughout the campaign, with the club-record signing consistently making his mark. His value to the side was underlined during the closing stages of the winter transfer window, when Celtic resisted a reported £25 million bid from Nottingham Forest to keep him at Parkhead.
Unfortunately for the Hoops, the timing of the setback is far from ideal. Celtic are firmly involved in the Scottish Premiership title race and remain active in the Europa League. Based on O’Neill’s projected return date, Engels is expected to miss at least eight additional matches across all competitions — excluding the trip to Kilmarnock — and that figure could rise to 10 if Celtic progress past Stuttgart in their Europa League play-off tie.
Notably, that potential run of fixtures includes two clashes with Rangers — one in the league and another in the Scottish Cup — along with challenging encounters against Hibernian and Motherwell.
Leave a Reply