Sebastian Tounekti’s absence from the Celtic squad has taken a strange turn, with Paul John Dykes saying he has been told the winger got off the team bus and went home in a taxi after being left out.

Dykes, who runs the A Celtic State of Mind podcast and website, raised it on ACSOM’s full-time show after Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with Dundee United. He said the rumour had circulated twice this season.

“I actually heard from a very very good source that that did happen,” he said. “And you know what? He’s never been seen since.”

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We don’t usually run dressing-room rumours, but Dykes is reliable and wouldn’t put something out if he didn’t think there was anything in it. He didn’t say which match the story relates to though. 

He then went through the winger’s last few weeks: “So he plays a European game, comes on, plays a European game, doesn’t play against Hibs, goes away in the puff with a bottom lip out, the petted lip, and he’s not in the squad tonight.”

Tounekti’s last five games

The team sheets back up that pattern. Tounekti hasn’t been in a Premiership squad since the 2-0 win at Motherwell on 11 October.

Across the season, he has made 15 appearances, only five of them starts, for 524 minutes. His one goal came in the League Cup, according to our match centre data.

Tounekti joined from Hammarby on deadline day in September 2025, signing a five-year deal for a reported £5.5m.

He has had his critics. Scott Brown said on Sky Sports after the Hearts win that Callum Osmand had done more in 45 minutes than Tounekti had in his whole time at the club.

What it means for Celtic

Until Celtic or Tounekti say otherwise, the taxi story is Dykes’s account rather than confirmed fact. A player taking the huff at being left out would hardly be a first in football, though.

What isn’t in doubt is that he has dropped out of Martin O’Neill’s plans, with Osmand and Haissem Hassan getting the chances out wide instead. Three straight Premiership squads without him is a steep fall, but his form and performances hardly merited a place in the squad.

The proof will be in the pudding, and the first test is whether Tounekti is back in the squad at Falkirk on Sunday . O’Neill speaks to the media before that game, which will be the next chance to ask him where the winger stands.