Tough day at the office for O'Neill

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill will tonight try and overcome a triple headache before he sets off for Germany in the morning.

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill will tonight try and overcome a triple headache before he sets off for Germany in the morning.

The Scottish Football Association confirmed earlier today that Neil Lennon will be asked to explain an alleged gesture while Didier Agathe's red card at Dundee will stand.

But his day went from bad to worse when he was told that Stephen Crainey had stretched ligaments in his knee. Scans today confirmed the initial diagnosis and a period of at least six weeks on the sidelines awaits for the defender, confirming his absence for Wednesday's Champions League game at Bayern Munich.

Hours earlier Tayside Police launched an investigation into allegations that Lennon made a gesture to Dundee fans during Saturday's highly-charged victory at Dens Park, while referee Dougie McDonald has included the claims in his report.

READ MORE

The SFA's head of disciplinary affairs Drew Herbertson told the Press Association: "The report from the weekend match came in this morning and the incident involving Neil Lennon is contained in referee Dougie McDonald's report.

"A copy of that letter will now be issued to the club to invite them and the player to explain his actions.

"We can't speculate on what will happen and he will not be asked to appear at the moment. The committee will then deal with the matter."

Celtic received further bad news when the SFA ended hopes of Agathe's dismissal being rescinded after he was given his marching orders for a challenge on Nacho Novo.

"There are no grounds for appeal whatsoever," added Herbertson. "We will not be changing the rules and there is no room for manoeuvre.

"Didier Agathe was sent off for denying the opposing team or opponent a goal or an obvious chance of scoring a goal which is stated in the laws of the game so that is the end of the matter.

"He will now have to serve a one-match suspension with immediate effect."

Agathe will miss the home match with Motherwell on September 20th and join the growing list of absentees.

Chris Sutton will return from suspension, but Paul Lambert, Crainey, Johan Mjallby, Joos Valgaeren, Ulrik Laursen and Steve Guppy are all still recovering from injury.

Meanwhile, Ivan de la Pena is prepared to return to Celtic as long as the club offer him a contract without another trial.

Hoops manager Martin O'Neill had left the door open for the former Barcelona and Lazio midfielder to come back for a trial after de la Pena turned his back on a move to Qatar.

But the Spaniard is unlikely to be seen again at Parkhead unless he is offered a full-time deal.

"We are reopening negotiations with Celtic after the player decided to fly back to Barcelona," his agent Mane Ferrer said. "Ivan felt the offer to play in Qatar was not attractive enough and now we are hoping to conclude a deal with Celtic as soon as possible.

"We are hoping Celtic will contact us with an offer today, but the player won't come on trial. He'll come only if he has a contract offer dependent on a medical.

"Then it will be up to the player to work hard and get as fit as possible to be available for the manager."

Michael Gray and Dani, meanwhile, came through 90 minutes as Celtic Under-21s beat their Dundee counterparts 1-0 today.

Forgotten man Bobby Petta proved to be the match-winner, but O'Neill would have been glad to see the former Sunderland defender get more action under his belt bearing in mind his injury problems.

The former England international has yet to make his debut for Celtic, but he looks set to be involved in Munich on Wednesday.