Ryan Christie has been charged with violent conduct after allegedly grabbing the Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos’ groin area during Celtic’s Old Firm derby defeat on Sunday.

The Celtic and Scotland midfielder has been served with a notice of complaint from the Scottish FA, with a hearing set for 6 January. Christie will face a two-game ban if he is found guilty.

The 24-year-old had already been booked by Kevin Clancy when he appeared to grab at Morelos after he had been nutmegged by the Colombia attacker with an hour played at Celtic Park. A foul was awarded but Clancy did not show Christie a second yellow card.

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Celtic have released a strongly worded statement in support of Christie, who has been charged with a breach of SFA disciplinary rule 200 (A2). “We are absolutely astonished at this decision; clearly we will defend Ryan vigorously.”

Disciplinary Rule 200 says: “Where any one of the sending-off offences of (A1) serious foul play, (A2) violent conduct and (A3) spitting at an opponent or any other person is committed by a player at a match, but that offence was not seen by any of the match officials at the time that it was committed, the mandatory suspension for that offence [two matches] shall be applied to the player.”

Christie himself reportedly underwent groin surgery on Tuesday, having been substituted with 10 minutes to go in the 2-1 defeat. The former Inverness player had a penalty saved by Allan McGregor in the first half before Nikola Katic scored a second-half winner for the visitors.