FILIP BENKOVIC is unlikely to take part in Celtic’s game against St Johnstone on Wednesday night BUT reports today suggest the Croatian’s injury is feared to be much worse than how Brendan Rodgers described it yesterday.

During his pre-match press conference for CelticTV, the Celtic manager admitted the defender had picked up a knock and he would be assessed over the coming days.

If reports are to be believed the defender could be out for a substantial part of the second half of the season and could head back to his parent club for treatment.

Nothing has been confirmed at this point and we have our fingers crossed this isn’t the case with so many big games coming up. Celtic are already without Dedryck Boyata and to lose Benkovic for any period of time would be a massive blow. Both players will leave Celtic at the end of the season and the manager will have to deal with their absence then but hopefully that timetable has not been pushed up so close to the deadline.

Benkovic has so far made 26 appearances after coming in on loan from Leicester who paid £13million plus for Filip in the summer from Zagreb according to Transermarkt.