Allowing Matt O'Riley to depart Celtic less than a week before the transfer window closes has left the club with a "problem", according to Chris Sutton.
The former Hoops striker is concerned how the reigning Scottish Premiership champions will cope in O'Riley's absence and hopes manager Brendan Rodgers will be backed by the board to strengthen the squad over the coming days.
O'Riley has been at the heart of transfer talks throughout the summer. It looked as though he was Atalanta bound, however the Serie A outfit pursued other options despite having multiple bids rejected by Celtic. Now the star midfielder is set to join Brighton for a fee totalling around £30million.
The 2023/24 Celtic Player of the Year has been left out the squad for Sunday's league clash against St Mirren, with Paulo Bernardo handed an opportunity in his absence.
Sutton would love to see the summer recruit take his chance, yet remains intrigued at how many more new faces his old team will bring in before the transfer window slams shut at 11pm on Friday.
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"He was Celtic's best player last season and they can't replace him essentially," Sutton told Sky Sports.
"It's going to be a really interesting week, what happens in the next seven days. I don't think they just need one body in, they need more bodies. But replacing Matt O'Riley is nigh on impossible.
"Bernardo will get the chance this afternoon to show what he can do. He had a little cameo last season, came in on that sort of higher up on the left-hand side of the midfield and performed well. He'll get his chance more on a consistent basis now, but I suspect it's an area where Brendan, he talks about the need for more quality and not just competing at domestic level, but competing at Champions League level, so Celtic need more quality in the building.
"I think Celtic are light in the midfield area and other areas in the team. I look at left-back, I look at centre-half, maybe Brendan will want another centre-forward in as well.
"So, like I say Celtic have got a lot of work to do in this next week to sort of appease the situation because Matt O'Riley is an enormous loss. To lose him this late is a problem for Celtic."
