Celtic fans urge Neil Lennon to hand 29-year-old first November start against Sparta Prague

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Neil Lennon will be desperate to exact revenge on Sparta Prague and save Celtic’s Europa League campaign on Thursday night – and Celtic fans have urged him to start a defender that is yet to feature in the starting XI in November.

Israel international Elhamed, 29, has been in and out of the Celtic side since joining the club in the summer of 2019 for a fee of £1.6million (Sun). Injuries limited Elhamed to just 15 appearances in his first season with the Scottish champions.

This time around, it has been a similar story. Elhamed has played 11 times but injury has kicked in again – preventing him from starting a single match in November. He was an unused substitute against Hibernian on Sunday, which resulted in a 2-2 draw.

Celtic have managed to gain just one point from their opening three Europa League group games – suffering defeats to AC Milan and Prague at Parkhead, and drawing against Lille. They have it all to do to qualify for the knockout rounds.

Prague inflicted a 4-1 defeat on Celtic in Glasgow, despite fielding a makeshift side. This time around, Prague are expected to be a lot stronger but Celtic will be desperate to inflict revenge on the Czech side – in order to save their group stage campaign.

Celtic supporters have taken to Twitter to discuss who should start against Sparta, and many think Elhamed should be given a chance – whether that is at right-back, the right side of a three-man defence or as a centre-back in a four-man defence.

https://twitter.com/PaulMcG1994/status/1331638227543977993

https://twitter.com/LiamG__/status/1331603489374482433

https://twitter.com/1888_Celticbhoy/status/1331251220145647622

https://twitter.com/CelticFC_Talk/status/1331740127945748480