Lennon laments devastating Mouyokolo injury blow

Neil Lennon believes summer signing Steven Mouyokolo has suffered “horrendous luck” with the complete rupture of an Achilles tendon which will sideline him for six months.

The Hoops boss confirmed that the 26-year-old defender returned to France, where he has had surgery on the injury picked up at training on Monday. Mouyokolo has made just two starts since signing for the Scottish champions in July, following his comeback from a cruciate ligament injury.

He was a free agent after his contract with Wolves was terminated by mutual consent in January and was handed a one-year deal by the Parkhead club after impressing on trial during their pre-season trip to Germany and Austria.

However, now it looks like his season is all and Lennon said: “It is devastating for him. He has worked so hard.

“It was an innocuous thing. He was running for the ball and we heard this pop. He had a complete rupture of his Achilles tendon, he has had surgery in France.

“He was obviously really upset. We are waiting on how well the operation went but we are looking at maybe six months, so we are hoping to see him sometime in the New Year.

“It is a devastating blow for him because he is still a young guy, he is 26, he’s had long bouts of absence with injury and we were all hoping that he would get a clean run — but obviously that is not the case.”

Celtic travel to Hearts in the Scottish Premiership today before they begin their Champions League campaign with a trip to the San Siro to play AC Milan next Wednesday.