NEIL Lennon spoke to the press at Lennoxtown today (Tuesday) following the news that Boli Bolingoli had travelled to Spain last week without the club’s knowledge, failed to quarantine on his return, and then played in Sunday’s match against Kilmarnock.

The Celtic manager was understandably furious at the player’s action, with Celtic’s two forthcoming Premiership fixtures against St Mirren on Wednesday night and Aberdeen this Saturday postponed as a result.

Neil Lennon said: “The club have been at the forefront of maintaining good practice in having the protocols all in place, trying to get the game up and running and we have been bitterly and sorely let down by the selfish actions of one individual.

“We played Hamilton on the opening game of the season. We gave the players a couple of days off afterwards because it’d been a heavy week that week. We made it clear in no uncertain terms that no one could travel, certainly, not leave the country anyway, and he’s blatantly disregarded my instructions, my medical team’s instructions, the club’s instructions, and has put everything in jeopardy.

“In terms of club responsibility, we’ve apologised to all of the other clubs in the division, and the footballing support as a whole.

“But we can’t always watch the players 24/7. As I said, we had strict protocols in place during this restart, and I don’t think the club could have done more. My medical advisor is absolutely devastated with what’s happened because of the huge amount of work that he’s done over the last four or five months. We’ve been bitterly let down by these actions of one individual. Discipline will be a club decision and we’ll deal with that in the strongest possible terms.”

While Celtic’s next two games have been postponed, Aberdeen’s midweek match against Hamilton Accies has also been called off, and it follows the postponement of the Dons’ fixture against St Johnstone last weekend.

Neil Lennon continued: “I’m absolutely relieved that football is continuing. Unfortunately for us and Aberdeen, we need to miss out on the next two games. We’re not looking for sympathy, but it’s obviously been totally disruptive for our preparations for tomorrow, for Saturday and for the Champions League, but that’s by the by. We have to hold our hands up as a club and say sorry, and we look to use this as a motivation for ourselves going forward.

“And I’m saying this honestly, the club have done everything in terms of getting the game going. They’ve been at the forefront in terms of dealing with the government, setting good practices, safety protocols, health protocols, stadium safety, everything. They’ve been looking at getting supporters back into the stadium, getting the game up and running again, the testing has been constant, logging in everyday in the health lab, they have done everything. It’s a short-term hit, and we’ll come back hopefully better than ever.

“The feeling from the rest of the squad is anger, frustration, disappointment. We’re looking to get a bit of momentum going. They’ve waiting a long time to play competitive football, and it’s simply not good enough. We can only apologise to the supporters who are going to miss out on seeing us play over the next week or so, but we’ll be more determined than ever when we come back.”

Neil Lennon: We've been let down by selfish actions of one player