Former Celtic striker Frank McAvennie has claimed that Liel Abada’s new injury scare probably isn’t anything to be too worried about.
The Israel international was recently playing in a game against Albania but was substituted after 77 minutes, supposedly having to limp off the field of play (via GlasgowLive).
While this may spark fears of a long-term fitness issue, the same report says he was spotted at full-time walking on the pitch without any obvious signs of trouble.
While talking about the player in an interview with Football Insider, McAvennie said that he expects Abada to recover from such a knock with ease due to his age and claimed that Celtic have enough depth to cover him in the meantime, anyway.
The pundit explained: “The good thing about him is he’s young.
“When you get knocks at that age, you tend to get better a lot quicker. As long as it’s not a serious injury, I think he’ll be back in a couple of weeks.
“They’ve got so many good players in midfield. They’ve got all this talent coming through. There’s James Forrest, everyone forgets about him. [Daizen] Maeda didn’t look on it last week, but none of the boys did, it was horrible the whole game.
“Abada is a young boy, he’s scoring goals so he’s a big player. He’s only a young boy so the manager will bring him in and take him out and use him accordingly. They’ve got players coming into midfield so it will be chopping and changing.”
Is Liel Abada an automatic starter for Celtic now?
Yes
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TIF Thoughts on Liel Abada and Celtic…
With seven goal contributions (six strikes and one assist) in just 10 outings so far this season for Celtic, it’s fair to say Abada has established himself as a key part of Ange Postecoglou’s plans.
This fine start to the new campaign follows an impressive season last time out when he scored 15 goals and claimed 11 assists in all competitions for the Bhoys as well.
With that in mind, supporters would be justified to fear the worst when the player limped off recently for his country, but hopefully the knock isn’t too much to be worried about.
McAvennie certainly doesn’t seem to be concerned, and with the likes of Jota, Sead Haksabanovic, Daizen Maeda, James Forrest and even Kyogo Furuhashi able to play on the wing too, it’s not as if Celtic are short for options if it comes to it.