Celtic explain how Liel Abada suffered four-month injury lay-off and address fitness of five players

Liel Abada has gone to London for a scan on his thigh muscle.

Celtic were dealt a Champions League blow with the news that Liel Abada will be out for three to four months with a thigh problem.

The 21-year-old winger picked up the injury on duty with Israel and is set to miss the Hoops’ six group games, which start with a trip to Rotterdam next week to play Feyenoord.

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers said: “He has gone to London today for a scan but we think it is going to be around three to four months. It looks like he has done his thigh muscle. He picked it up at the end of training in a shooting exercise. It is a real shame for him because he has done well over pre-season and he has started in a lot of games since I have been here, so we are really disappointed but it is a squad game for us and we have other players to come in.

“He signed a new deal and he seemed happy and I was looking forward to continuing his development because he has lots of areas that he can improve on. It is a shame but he will work hard and get back and we will use him for the second part of the season.”

Rodgers did have some good news on the injury front ahead of the visit of Dundee in the cinch Premiership, saying: “Reo Hatate will be back, which is great news for us, he has trained.” The Japan midfielder has been out for a month with a calf injury while Cameron Carter-Vickers, Maik Nawrocki (both hamstring), Stephen Welsh, Yuki Kobayashi (both ankle), Mikey Johnston (back), Marco Tilio and Oh Hyeon-gyu (calf) are working their way back to fitness.

Rodgers added: “With some of these other guys it is about when to put them in because some of them haven’t played for a period of time, it is about finding the right game, the right moments and right amount of game time so they aren’t overloaded. Marco Tilio has been back training but has missed all pre-season so we are just waiting for the right moments in games for him. Cameron Carter-Vickers is doing very well, hopefully on schedule to be back at the beginning of October. Maik Nawrocki is obviously a little bit longer. Yuki Kobayashi is back training as well so we are starting to get players back, which is good.”