Celtic Striker Bangura Sidelined Once Again
Parkhead frontman ruled out for the bulk of Celtic’s remaining league games, stretching his already injury-prone first season in Glasgow even longer. Bangura has now not participated at first team level since The Hoops defeated Kilmarnock 2-1 at Celtic Park.
A combination of sporadic injuries and his teammates’ consistency have robbed striker Mohamed Bangura of garnering a meaningful run of games in a Celtic jersey. And his chances took another massive hit recently when he was ruled out for the next three months of the campaign with a recurrence of the knee injury which has blighted his progress so far.
At the moment he has amassed an unexceptional total of fourteen appearances since arriving from AIK Stockholm for an estimated £2.2 million. Nine of these came in the SPL, four in the Europa League and one solitary outing in the Scottish Communities League Cup. Since his arrival, his statistics have spawned skepticism in many Celtic fans.
The fact, however, that Bangura has only actually started a game for Celtic on two occasions – against Udinese and Hearts respectively – suggests a considerably more open-minded view of his ability must be taken, rather than simply taking his fortunes in front of goal so far this season at face value. The other games he took part in were, indeed, mostly short run-outs ranging from as long as a full half to as little as two minutes. On top of this it must be noted, after all, that when the other strikers at the club play so well together and score goals – as Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes most certainly do – it is hard to make a significant case to be started more often.
Regardless of this, his return from a previous knee injury was looking promising. Good performances in bounce games on his road to recovery, including four goals in games during December (two each against Morton and Hibernian respectively) came before his being eased back into the first-team fold against Kilmarnock during the 2-1 victory just before the turn of the year.
This latest recurrence of the knee injury which has seemingly cursed Bangura to play no more than a bit part role at Celtic, and will seemingly keep him out of contention for approximately three months, has coincided with Neil Lennon’s decision to sign another striker on loan until the end of the season: Paweł Brożek from Trabzonspor.
It may be that, even when fit again, Bangura will have to be content with the same erratic existence in the Celtic setup as before.
