Celtic's Selection Surprise: O'Neill Explains Hassan Omission

Martin O’Neill has lifted the lid on one of the big selection shocks from Celtic’s 3-0 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox – the omission of Haissem Hassan from his starting XI.

The winger, one of the bright sparks in Celtic’s midweek win over St Johnstone, was expected to keep his place for the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final. He had set up Mika Baur’s winner in that 1-0 victory and thought he had one himself, only for a controversial decision to rule it out. Form, confidence, momentum – everything pointed to another start.

Then the teams dropped. Sebastian Tounekti was in. Hassan was not.

Questions came quickly. Was it tactical? Was it about the occasion? Had O’Neill simply decided to freshen things up for a derby at Ibrox?

After the final whistle, the Celtic manager gave a far more straightforward explanation.

“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,” O’Neill said, speaking via the Scottish Sun.

A simple issue, but one that carried weight on a day when Celtic needed every spark they could find. In O’Neill’s eyes, throwing a sleep-deprived 21-year-old into one of the most intense fixtures in the calendar was a risk not worth taking.

He had hinted at that before kick-off when pressed on Hassan’s absence, pointing to the demands of this particular fixture rather than any loss of faith in the player.

“Yeah, I think that he will be on the field of play without doubt,” O’Neill replied when asked about the winger’s chances of featuring. “I think sometimes maybe just have a little look at the fixture itself, you know, the intensity of all of those particular things.”

That was the balance he tried to strike: managing a young player’s physical state against the ferocity of an Ibrox cup tie.

In the end, the night belonged to Rangers and the questions stayed with Celtic. Not just about the scoreline, but about the fine margins – from a sleepless night to a bold selection call – that can tilt a derby and shape the story of a season.