Martin O’Neill explains Haissem Hassan's absence against Rangers

Martin O’Neill says a sleepless night, not selection politics, lay behind his decision to leave Haissem Hassan out of Celtic’s starting XI in the 3-0 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox.

The winger had been widely tipped to start Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup quarter-final after lighting up Celtic’s midweek win over St Johnstone. He set up Mika Baur’s decisive goal in that 1-0 victory and had one of his own chalked off in controversial fashion. On form, he looked undroppable.

Then came the teamsheet.

Sebastian Tounekti got the nod. Hassan was on the bench. In a game of this magnitude, the call raised eyebrows among Celtic supporters and pundits alike.

O’Neill moved quickly after the final whistle to explain the thinking. This, he insisted, was about the player’s condition, not his quality.

“Young Hassan had an overnight problem, and he didn’t get much sleep in all honesty, so it was just a matter of not starting him because of that. That’s the reason, really,” the Celtic manager said, speaking via Scottish Sun.

The issue had already surfaced before kick-off. Asked then about Hassan’s absence from the starting line-up, O’Neill hinted that the nature of the occasion had also weighed on his mind.

“Yeah, I think that he will be on the field of play without doubt,” he replied. “I think sometimes maybe just have a little look at the fixture itself, you know, the intensity of all of those particular things.”

The message was clear. In the heat of an Ibrox derby, with the pace ferocious and the stakes high even in a cup quarter-final, O’Neill was unwilling to risk a player he felt was not fully primed after a disrupted night.

Hassan’s recent displays suggest this will not be a long-term demotion. A sleepless night cost him a starting place in one of the fiercest fixtures on the calendar. The real question now is how quickly he forces his way back into O’Neill’s first-choice side when the next big occasion comes around.