Celtic’s home Scottish Premiership match with Hibernian went ahead on Monday night last night despite the Parkhead squad being decimated by Covid-19 issues, with manager Neil Lennon and 13 players having to self-isolate. But the home side came close to an unlikely victory, leading 1-0 going into injury-time against Hibs thanks to David Turnbull’s superb free-kick. Kevin Nisbet’s late equaliser, though, denied Celtic three points. The Scottish champions had earlier confirmed defender Christopher Jullien tested positive for Covid-19 but had noted that all other players and staff members were negative after being checked following their return to Scotland from a training camp in Dubai on Friday. However, Lennon, his assistant John Kennedy and 13 players were deemed to be close contacts of Jullien and have gone into self-isolation, leaving the club severely depleted. Celtic released a statement which read: “Celtic Football Club confirmed today that Christopher Jullien has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating at home. We wish Christopher a speedy recovery. “While all of the other members of the squad and backroom team have tested negative, we have been informed by the authorities that, having been deemed ‘close contacts’, Celtic manager Neil Lennon, assistant John Kennedy and 13 first-team players will be required to self-isolate on a precautionary basis as required by the current regulations. “The contacts were identified during the period from Wednesday last week, primarily around flight and team coach travel, during which time Celtic applied the same rigorous protocols used for pre-season training camps, Uefa match travel and for all domestic match arrangements in Scotland. “These protocols have served us well in the past, as the club has not had one positive case in our own ‘bubble’ until now. As we have already stated, Celtic’s decision to travel to Dubai for a training camp was for performance reasons. “Whilst we were in Dubai, the announcements made on January 4 significantly changed the Covid landscape.The reality is that a case could well have occurred had the team remained in Scotland, as other cases have done in Scottish football and across UK sport in the past week.” The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, had questioned the purpose of Celtic’s trip and whether they were following social-distancing rules after seeing photos from their Dubai base. Kennedy, the Celtic assistant manager, admitted on Saturday that there had been some minor “slip-ups” but that a photo had maybe painted a “false picture”. Elite sports teams who go to foreign training camps are exempt from quarantine rules. Speaking on Saturday to BBC Radio Scotland’s Off The Ball programme, the national clinical director, Jason Leitch, said: “Professional sport people can go on winter training camps – that is allowed. They’re not allowed to just go on a holiday, like the rest of us aren’t. “That exemption if they stay within their bubble means they don’t have to quarantine when they come back. The United Arab Emirates on Friday had 5,055 new cases, nearly double the Scottish numbers of cases. There is a lot of Covid in Dubai. “The club, when they’re in Dubai, have to follow the rules. They have to distance. They are allowed to be there, to be clear.