Odsonne Edouard: Celtic boss Neil Lennon says striker has 'niggle'
- Published
Lewis Morgan and Mikey Johnston caught the eye in an unconventional Celtic front three
Striker Odsonne Edouard has a "niggle" and could miss Sunday's Scottish Premiership game with Ross County, says Celtic manager Neil Lennon.
The Frenchman was omitted from the squad for Thursday's 3-1 Europa League victory over Rennes - a win that sealed top spot in Group E.
Lennon admitted that he didn't want to risk Edouard, 21, and will assess his condition prior to Sunday's match.
"We didn't want to take any chances," he said of the 14-goal striker.
"We'll see how he is for the weekend. That performance was without Odsonne [Edouard], so it shows how well we can play.
"Sometimes you have important players missing, and that sums up the group at the minute, they're really in a good place."
Lennon opted for a striker-less formation against Rennes that featured winger Lewis Morgan as a lone striker, supported by Ryan Christie and James Forrest.
Prior to the game, Morgan had scored just once for Celtic, but the former St Mirren winger broke the deadlock in the 21st minute amid an impressive performance.
"Lewis comes in and he's a testament to being a really good professional," said Lennon of the 23-year-old.
"Waiting his time, staying on top of his conditioning and he goes out and plays brilliantly like that.
"We're all really pleased for Lewis, we knew he could do it. He's a really fit lad and he's getting stronger physically. He just needs to believe in himself the way we all do.
"It was a great goal he scored, it was a striker's goal, a great finish. His all round game tonight was excellent."
'Pace almost impossible to defend against' - analysis
Former Scotland forward James McFadden on Sportsound
Normally in the past, you look at Celtic and Rangers going into domestic games and blowing teams away by playing a certain style of football, but they'd go into Europe and something would change. Nothing has changed with these two sides in Europe this year. That's about players thinking on their feet and it's very difficult to deal with that.
Former Scotland midfielder Michael Stewart on Sportsound
It doesn't matter who you're playing against. When you play at that pace and you're playing one-twos around the box you can be the best defence in the world but it's almost impossible to defend against. If you have the ability to do that in an attacking sense you can cut open any side.