Celtic offloaded the Dane to FC Midtjylland in January and brought in Jack Hendry from Dundee as his replacement.
Celtic’s deadline day signing Jack Hendry endured a tough debut for the Hoops on Saturday, as his side lost 1-0 to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
In only the second domestic defeat of the Brendan Rodgers era, things went from bad to worse for the Celts as both Kristoffer Ajer and Dedryk Boyata picked up injuries, forcing them to be substituted.
With only 10 days to go until Celtic’s Europa League knock-out tie against Zenit St Petersburg, with Ajer and Boyata out the club are left with only one fit, eligible centre-half in Jack Hendry.
Fellow January arrival Marvin Compper picked up an injury during training and is yet to make his debut, however, he is ineligible to play in Europe regardless.
It appeared Celtic had done well to address their centre-back issues with their two January arrivals, but the club may live to regret allowing Erik Sviatchenko to leave on loan to FC Midtjylland.
Sviatchenko played an integral role in Celtic’s stunning treble-winning season last year, making 43 appearances for the Bhoys.
Having been out injured for most of the season, it was surprising that Rodgers did not give the Dane a chance to prove his worth before sending him out on loan, especially with the 26-year-old having proved his capabilities in a Celtic shirt before.
In fact, many would argue that Sviatchenko has enjoyed better spells in a Celtic shirt than both Jozo Simunovic and Dedryk Boyata, who are clearly both preferred by Rodgers.
Given the state of the centre-back situation, it does feel like uncharacteristicly poor management from the Northern Irishman.
Hendry’s debut will be one to forget for the 22-year-old, however, to his defence, the circumstances in which he lost both his defensive partners in Celtic’s back three was a big disruption to the former Dundee man’s outing.
The youngster found himself paired with makeshift centre-half Nir Bitton, who was at clear fault for Youssouf Mulumbu’s winner, and struggled to adapt to the new partnership in the latter stages of the game.
There was very mixed reaction from Celtic fans on Twitter following Hendry’s debut. Some praised his performance, singling it out as the only real positive to take from the loss, while others slammed the youngster, questioning why the club opted to buy him.
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