Martin O’Neill faces an anxious wait to discover the full extent of Mika Baur’s ankle injury after the midfielder hobbled off in distress late in their win against Kilmarnock.

Celtic re-established their four-point lead at the top of the Premiership with a 1-0 victory over the Premiership’s bottom club courtesy of Liam Scales’ first-half strike.

But the outcome was achieved amid concern for the German who failed to recover from a late tackle by visiting midfielder Aaron Tshibola.

Baur, who’s been outstanding since joining from Paderborn in the summer, is due to join up with Germany’s Under-21s for their games with Belgium and Croatia but will now wait to discover the full extent of the injury.

‘He’s in the treatment room,’ said O’Neill. ‘His ankle is really sore and we don’t know the damage. We’ll wait until tomorrow to get a scan.

‘Gosh, I’d hope he won’t be out terribly long, but I don’t know at the moment.

‘He’s been great for us considering he’s not the tallest. He’d be about ten stone, maybe not even that, but his workrate is incredible. His overall reading of the game is really good and he’s not frightened.’

O’Neill felt his players made life difficult for themselves with Benjamin Nygren’s penalty miss in the second half typifying their lack of composure in front of goal.

‘Pleased to win,’ he added. ‘It was a tough afternoon. We could never could put the game to bed and Kilmarnock were always in the game.

‘They played exceptionally well at times. Even (aside from) missing the penalty, it was really uncomfortable. But we saw it through. And after the effort on Thursday (against Besiktas), I probably wasn’t surprised that we didn’t have the same driving energy through the game. It was important to win.’

Kasper Hogh thought he’d put an end to his 16-game run without a goal when he netted in the first half only for VAR to pick up on an earlier foul by Baur on Greg Kiltie.

‘I thought Kasper was off the mark for about 35 seconds,’ O’Neill reflected. ‘I think he would maybe have scored the next chance if the first had counted, but he worked really hard for us.’

Despite failing to score, Hogh’s all-round contribution was recognised by a warm reception from supporters when he was substituted.

‘That’s really encouraging,’ said O’Neill. ‘If you have the crowd behind you then you feel that if you’re working hard they’ll forgive other things.

‘It won’t last forever. Strikers live and die by their goals but we all believe in him in the dressing room which is very encouraging.

‘In front of goal, it’s difficult. But he worked exceptionally hard, as he did on Thursday. I think things will come. His hold-up play is much better now.’

O’Neill was asked why Haissem Hassan didn’t figure at all in the match-day squad.

‘We’re trying to do as much manoeuvring as possible,’ he explained. ‘If there is proper competition for places it can only make it better.’

Jota made his first Celtic start since April of last year, lasting 45 minutes. O’Neill said: ‘I didn’t expect him to last. I thought he might get 60 minutes but he was tiring before half-time.

‘I said I didn’t expect him to go the whole way. Yang (Hyun-jun) was ready to go. He’s been brilliant for us this season.’

Despite failing to take any points from the match, Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann felt his side’s performance was brimming with positives.

‘The boys were brilliant,’ he said. ‘It’s not an easy place to come, especially after Celtic’s good result against Besiktas and them having their tails up and being confident.

‘We created chances, we were disciplined and brave on the ball in a difficult environment. The boys are really disappointed we didn’t take anything.

‘I know there was a penalty saved which was a really harsh decision when it’s given, but outside that I thought we were comfortable.

‘We came away with nothing, but when you reflect there are so many good things to take and get a head of steam up.

‘If we catch some breaks and be more ruthless, we’ll start climbing the table. There’s not a lot between everyone and that’s why I have optimism.’