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da bet7： A report in The Sun claims that Filip Benkovic could miss the rest of the season through injury.
What’s the news?
The on-loan Leicester City stopper has played in all three Celtic games since the winter break but in his media conference on Tuesday Brendan Rodgers admitted to the defender suffering ‘a knock’ that will be assessed before Thursday’s match with St Johnstone.
According to The Sun, Benokovic played the full ninety minutes against Hamilton at the weekend, and the extent of his leg problem only emerged after the game itself.
A crushing blow
If there is any chance of Benkovic being out for any noteworthy length of time it will be a crushing blow to Celtic, with the young Croat the star turn in defence since his arrival.
Rodgers recently stated that he was happy to go with the central defensive options that he already has but if Benkovic is facing a lengthy lay off, Celtic could well be forced into the transfer market before it closes on Thursday evening.
Leicester splashed out £13m to sign the defender from Zagreb but that sort of fee is way outside of Celtic’s range.
Benkovic quickly formed a highly effective partnership with Dedryck Boyata, and that pairing was in place for all three of Celtic’s Europa League group stage wins and the Betfred Cup Final success over Aberdeen.
The 21-year-old tried to play through the pain barrier during the December Glasgow derby at Ibrox but was replaced by Kris Ajer during the first half. Ajer has stood in for Boyata in Celtic’s last two matches and will be joined by Simunovic against St Johnstone.