Castillo boost for Celtic

Castillo: Out of clash?

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Celtic's UEFA Champions League hopes have been handed a boost ahead of Wednesday's game against Shakhtar Donetsk.

The Ukrainian champions were embarrassed at the weekend in only drawing with bottom-of-the-table Neftyanik and their woes were exacerbated by the behaviour of record signing Nery Castillo, who is now likely to be left out of the Parkhead clash.

Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu was left incensed after his side were awarded a penalty and Castillo refused to hand the ball to regular spot-kick taker Cristiano Lucarelli, before proceeding to fire it straight at Neftyanik's goalkeeper.

Lucescu was left incensed on the touchline and it would appear Shakhtar and Castillo could soon be experiencing a parting of ways.

Inexplicable

"What Castillo did, from a professional point of view, I've never seen anything like it before in my whole life," Lucescu told the Daily Record.

"To refuse to hand over the ball to the player who was meant to take the penalty and to take the kick himself, that is simply inexplicable.

"The main thing is the psychological impact on the team ahead of the Champions League game just before we head out to Scotland.

"There will be some measures taken against Castillo.

"He has shown by his actions that he doesn't want to play here and that nothing interests him.

"That kind of behaviour is beyond all possible acceptable boundaries."

Tribute

Meanwhile, Celtic are to hold a minute's applause before the match to pay their respects to 100 miners who died after an explosion in Ukraine.

The disaster, which happened last week at Zasyadko mine in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, is the worst in the country's recent history.

Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell said: "Clearly we are aware that this tragedy has had a devastating effect on so many families, in the Donetsk region and in Ukraine as a whole."