Maik Nawrocki is reported to be an injury doubt for Legia Warsaw’s match against LKS Lodz tonight.
With multiple reports of a substantial offer being placed by Celtic for the defender it is hardly a surprise that he has a ‘minor health problem’ as reported by Polish site transfery.info.
Two years ago Celtic and Legia were able to quickly conclude a deal for Josip Juranovic who helped Legia into the Europa League group stage then moved to Celtic where he was pitched into a debut at Ibrox.
Eighteen months later Legia were picking up a sell-on fee as the Croatian moved to Union Berlin, Celtic probably picked up a bonus payment when Union qualified for the Champions League through their fourth place finish in the Bundesliga.
It looks like Celtic will have to come up with an initial fee of around £4m to sign Nawrocki which is almost twice the fee paid for Juranovic. If the 22-year-old central defender turns out to be as successful it will be euros well spent.
Looking at tonight’s match against LKS Lodz, transfery.info reports:
It is very possible that the coach will give new players a chance on that day. The team will miss two important players, Bartosz Kapustka and Maik Nawrocki.
Both are struggling with minor health problems, and the latter is one step away from a transfer. We wrote more about the case here.
Legia coach Kosta Runjaic explained:
We have a large staff. This does not mean, of course, that all players will perform tomorrow. I’ll make final decisions today after training. Kapi will be ready to play next week. It will also start training with 100% load. Maik Nawrocki suffered a minor injury and will not be at our disposal during tomorrow’s competition. The rest of the players are at my disposal.
With no real timescale for when Cameron Carter-Vickers is back in action Celtic’s dependency on the former Spurs defender has been highlighted.
Straight after the Scottish Cup semi-final victory at Hampden he underwent knee surgery, almost three months later sightings have been rare with his rehab confined to the gym rather than playing ‘out on the grass’.
Pre-season is the worst time of year for any player to be injured, the essential deposit of fitness work mixed with stepping up the demands from friendly matches is all times to ensure peak fitness in time for the start of the competitive action.
Replicating that four week period of intensive work isn’t easy, with visits to Pittodrie and Ibrox in the early weeks of the season Celtic’s fixture list reinforces the need for additional options in central defence.
Nawrocki seems to be the perfect candidate, scouted by Celtic’s recruitment team while Brendan Rodgers has experience of the player who was involved against Leicester in the 21/22 Europa League.
Two solid seasons in the Legia side has taken the Polish u-21 internationalist to the brink of a serious transfer with Galatasaray also showing interest.
Runjaic is likely to be asked for an update following tonight’s match with Celtic fans looking to get the deal completed, Nawrocki training with his new team-mates and preparing for a debut against Wolves at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin next Saturday.
Until all is done and dusted there is unlikely to be any comment from Celtic. Gangwon and Busan Ipark have both been setting the pace in the transfers of Yang Hyun-jun and Kwon Hyeok-kyu, their destination club hasn’t commented in any way.
Celtic complete their two match tour of Japan tomorrow then return to Scotland on Monday, getting Nawrocki signed up alongside positive news on Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston can help to build momentum with the August 5 match against Ross County quickly followed by far tougher domestic tests.
CLICK HERE for more background from transfery.info on Nawrocki.
🆕Do gry o Maika Nawrockiego oprócz Galatasaray wszedł tez Celtic Glasgow. Wyglada na to, ze to już naprawdę ostatnie dni obrońcy w Legii Warszawa
— Paweł Gołaszewski (@golaszewski_p) July 20, 2023
