Celtic boss Neil Lennon has provided a fitness update on his squad after the Old-Firm derby.
Simunovic has persistently struggled with fitness problems during his time at Parkhead at Celtic and it seems that the centre-back could be out for a long time again.
Simunovic has not featured for Celtic since they were knocked out of the Champions League by Cluj.
And the Croatian centre-back appears to be struggling to recover from his current injury problem.
Lennon has also confirmed that Celtic have other injury issues after a fiercely competitive Old-Firm derby last weekend.
“Nir will be three or four weeks, Ajer will be 10 days. We are hoping to have him back for Hamilton. We will need to send Jozo to a specialist and we will take it from there,” Lennon admitted.
“We have a good squad now. We’ve trimmed the squad a lot. 13 left in the summer. It’s not as bloated as it was last season.”
When Simunovic does return to Celtic matters he could face a real fight to win a place back in Lennon’s team.
Christopher Julien has impressed since joining Celtic and Kristoffer Ajer should be able to move back to the centre of defence following the return of Hatem Abd Elhamed, who can play at right-back.
But Lennon is a big fan of Simunovic, and admitted to The Scottish Sun that he didn’t realise how good he was before becoming manager of the Bhoys.
“Jozo had competition here with Dedryck Boyata and Filip Benkovic and didn’t play a lot,” Lennon said last month. “But when I came in I thought he looked a good defender who comes up with really important goals as well.
“I didn’t realise just how good until I saw him play — especially alongside Kris Ajer. And the more they played together, the happier I was. Jozo is what you’d call a proper centre-half.”
It means that Lennon will be keen to have Simunovic back sooner rather than later, and Celtic will be hoping that the specialist can get to the bottom of the defender’s current problem.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
