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NEIL LENNON says Celtic want answers on the double standards surrounding Coronavirus restrictions, after Arsenal were cleared to name Kieran Tierney to their team for this weekend.
Celtic’s Tierney and Ryan Christie had been self-isolating since their Scotland teammate Stuart Armstrong tested positive for Covid-19 while on international duty, with the pair identified as close contacts of the Southampton midfielder.
However, as of yesterday, Celtic still did not know if Christie would be allowed to play in today’s game against the Rangers, leaving Lennon with no choice but to remove him from the starting lineup, even if he was authorized to play in the eleventh hour.
“We’ve been asking about Ryan for the last week and we’ve met resistance,” Lennon said.
“Arsenal have been given permission for Kieran to be on their team so we are confused.
“We want answers to some questions and I’m sure our fans will be the same.
“You cannot allow one to play and the other not, so we are confused as to how this has happened.
“All of our preparations are pretty much done. We just have to evaluate a couple of players. If we can get Ryan clear, we will put him on the team. He probably wouldn’t start, obviously, but he would rather have.” he available than not.
“He has tested negative twice now. He has no symptoms and has been training on a tape provided by the club. There is no reason why it cannot be available.”
“We just want to know, ‘If Kieran can do it, why can’t Ryan?'”
Lennon is puzzled why the stringent tests Celtic run don’t exempt their players from the standard 14-day isolation rules.
“We haven’t really been given a reason, it’s just on the basis of protocol,” he said.
“The boys maintain they were within social distance of Stuart, 2.8 meters away.
“They are somewhat guilty by association more than anything and we feel this is over the top at this point.
“Arsenal have had the go-ahead from digital / cultural folks in England.
“They have gone through a different line of investigation and have won their case, if you want to call it that. But we are meeting a lot of resistance to ours.
“We test twice a week. Basically we go from home to the training ground and to the stadium.
“Three of the guys have contracted the virus, but from the looks of it, he’s from around here, he’s obviously been in transit.
“We are testing at great cost, we are following protocols and losing four players is really unpleasant.”
Meanwhile, Odsonne Edouard returned to Glasgow yesterday after testing positive for Coronavirus while with the France Under-21 squad, and his condition will be assessed before a decision is made to include him in today’s Celtic squad.
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