Celtic have confirmed Dedryck Boyata is likely to miss three months of action with a knee injury, ruling the centre-back out of their Champions League qualifiers.

The Scottish Premiership champions are due to get their European campaign underway with the first leg of their second-round qualifier against Linfield of Northern Ireland on July 14.

Boyata will be unavailable for those matches and will also be out for the third round and play-offs should Celtic make it through, but assistant coach Chris Davies backed the defender to bounce back.

"Unfortunately for Dedryck he picked up a knee injury the other night and it looks like he is going out to be out for a few months with a medial knee ligament injury," said Davies.

"It was almost like a blocked pass. He dragged the ball back and as he has gone to pass it he has jarred the knee and that has obviously affected the ligaments.