Celtic fans are calling out an important issue this week – the lack of protection from Scottish referees for players in the top-flight.
The Hoops’ injury list is massive with multiple players over the last two fixtures alone missing action due to heavy challenges from opponents.
Ryan Christie was kicked in the ribs on Sunday, with Odsonne Edouard also injuring his foot after being booted.
Emilio Izaguirre had to be stretchered off last night too after an awful challenge from Hibs’ Darnell Johnson, although thankfully he did not suffer any leg or ankle breaks.
Supporters believe a lot of these injury problems are a result of opponents knowing they can weigh in heavy on players without too much punishment from officials.
Former Hoops captain Tom Boyd also spoke about the issue earlier this week, even before the horror tackle on Izaguirre.
Some fans want the club to take action and have taken to Twitter over the last few days to share their thoughts on it all…
Celtic players are getting absolutely no protection from referees. Everybody we play knows they can go over the ball, go in straight-legged, leave the foot in, and they’ll get a yellow card at worst. Now reaching a stage we’ve more than eleven players out injured.
— Daniel O’Connell 🇮🇪+🏴=🍀 (@DanielOConnel18) February 6, 2019
With Izzy going off after a horrific challange an still no protection from the referees it kinda feels like Celtic dropped a few points tonight.
It's time the club grew a set and called this out for what it is.
Unabashed, unadulterated, cheating. #CelticFC #Referees
— Marco Van Bastard (@M_Van_Bastard) February 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/krys1888/status/1093272630692597760
https://twitter.com/tirnaog09/status/1092675563775496192
@CelticFC need to start to DEMAND better protection from referees for Eddy.
That's TWICE this season he has been on the end of horrendous "challenges" that have seen him going off injured.
Does it have to be career-ending before @CelticFC start to complain?
— Metafizical Amorfus 🏴 🤝🇪🇺45% (@jakeybhoy58) February 5, 2019
Celtic wouldnt have an “injury epidemic” if other teams werent going out of their way to intentionally injury them. No protection from referees over some pretty horribke challenges either.
— lambo_no5 (@lambo_no5) February 7, 2019
The protection that professional players get from Scottish referees is a joke. Scotland will never have a descent national side unless the hammer throwers are hammered by Referees. Spending 10 million on a player will be a waste of money as he will spend 50% of his time at physio
— John Bhoy (@jald19) February 5, 2019