Celtic defender Jozo Simunovic has been left sweating over a potential ban with the compliance officer set to look at his clash with Hibernian’s Oli Shaw in their 2-0 win on Wednesday, according to the Daily Record.
The newspaper claim that the incident has been highlighted by officials post-match and will be investigated immediately, with the crucial decision over whether to take retrospective action to come by Friday afternoon.
The Celtic colossus, who stands at 6’3″ tall (source: Transfermarkt) has been a regular for Brendan Rodgers of late with three consecutive league starts, injury having curtailed his season at various points and resulting in just 18 appearances across all competitions.
Opinion
The last thing that Celtic need is another defender finding himself forced to the sidelines, with a number of Simunovic’s teammates having been ruled out with injuries over the last couple of weeks. Thankfully for Rodgers Dedryck Boyata is back from his layoff while Kieran Tierney also seems to be edging ever closer to a return, but losing his 24-year-old powerhouse at the heart of the defence would be a hefty blow nonetheless. The clash with Shaw was not a pretty one, the duo both battling it out for an aerial ball, and the Hibs man came off much worse after connecting with the Hoops man. Some might argue that Simunovic had used an elbow in there but the truth is it was simply the action of him leaping off the ground, with no malice intended from his flailing arms. It could be construed as dangerous but the truth is that the Bhoys would be dreadfully unlucky if the compliance officer were to hand out a ban. Of course, with the standard of officiating in Scotland this season, anything goes, so Rodgers might be tearing his hair out come Friday tea time.