Duran will join up with the Hoops squad in Lisbon following the birth of his second child with partner Valentina Jaramillo

Martin O'Neill has revealed Camilo Duran is set to make a late dash to Lisbon after becoming a dad for the second time.

The Celtic star was posted missing at training on Wednesday before the Hoops jetted out to Portugal, sparking injury fears.

But O’Neill has confirmed his top scorer will fly out to join the squad after being given permission to stay at home with partner Valentina Jaramillo for the birth of their second child.

He said: “He should come out and join us. It’ll be great to have him with us. His partner has had the baby so it’s brilliant.

“There is a possibility of trying to get something organised to fly him out to Lisbon this evening. But failing that he’ll travel tomorrow.

“He wanted to play. I don’t think he was at the birth of his first child so he wanted to be at the birth this time.”

Meanwhile, O’Neill has rubbished conspiracy theories suggesting Cameron Carter-Vickers has been bombed out.

The USA stopper irked his manager by questioning the team’s lack of clarity and “random” patterns of play following the stinging Parkhead loss to Rangers.

But O’Neill insists CCV's absence is down to injury, with a hamstring problem also set to rule him out of this weekend’s showdown with Hearts.

O’Neill said: “I would have concerns about Sunday. I think they are talking about another 10 days, in which we’ll probably have 15 games. He’s injured. It’s very difficult to play a player when he’s injured.”

Celtic couldn’t have faced a tougher challenge to pick up their first points of the Europa League campaign. After crashing to a 3-1 opening night defeat to Ferencvaros, leaving Lisbon empty-handed would give them a mountain to climb in their quest for the knockouts.

But O’Neill insists he’s desperate to lead the Hoops into the latter stages - just as he did last season. The veteran said: “First of all, we’re going to try and qualify for the knockout stages for a start. We did that last year and that’s what we’re trying to do.

“We’ve got another seven games in which to try and get enough points to qualify. I don’t know what would do it.

“Ten or eleven or something against you would qualify. So that would be the ambition for us to do it. We can still do it. We lost our opening game. You don’t want to lose the game.

“We could easily have beaten Ferencvaros early on in proceedings. We’ve got two or three great chances that we should have scored. We didn’t do. Of course, that’s a setback.

“This is a difficult game for us. They’ll be one of the favourites to win the competition. But we have games in which to get the points.”

Celtic’s record in Europe over the last decade has been mediocre to say the least but O’Neill is confident the Scottish champions will come again.

He said: “They will do. Absolutely. They definitely will. It might not be during my time but they will definitely do it. It’s a case of getting recruitment right.

“I make the point that it is difficult because what is happening is we are trying to do our part to keep the coefficient going and that gets more difficult each year.

“And the more games you have need to qualify for the Champions League or the Europa League there is the chance that you might get knocked out early on.

“But we are playing tomorrow night. We want to have a go. Really have a go. I think we are capable as well.

“While they are a really decent side that can carve people open, we will get chances in the game.”

O’Neill famously led Celtic to the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in Seville, only to suffer a heartbreaking defeat to Porto.

The odds are firmly stacked against the Northern Irishman masterminding another memorable run to this year’s final in Istanbul.

But O’Neill says he’s determined to take Celtic as far as he can in the competition.

He added: “The games are difficult. They are. It’s European football. It’s a big level.

“Benfica themselves are one of the favourites here. They and I suppose Juventus. And Milan, probably.

“We’ve got a task in our hands. But at the end of the day. It depends how it’s taken. Somebody asked me about prioritising… but I think when we set out every single season, the league is really, really important.

“European football, I’ve often said this before, is a diet in which you want to be feeding off. You really do. And it gets tougher every single year.

“It seems to get tougher for Scottish teams. But at the end of it all, let’s go and compete.”