The Dutch striker is still suffering from the groin injury he sustained in the opening seconds of the SPL match against Hamilton on October 4.

The injury will keep him out of Saturday's trip to Inverness, a game which could allow the Scottish champions to increase their lead at the summit of the SPL, with rivals Rangers not in action.

And Vennegoor of Hesselink also looks certain to sit out Tuesday's much-anticipated Champions League clash against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

When asked about the player's fitness, boss Gordon Strachan confirmed: "He will not be ready for a while yet."

The Hoops boss is also awaiting the return of Georgios Samaras, Shunsuke Nakamura, Scott McDonald, Artur Boruc and Aiden McGeady from international duty but believes he has no cause for concern.

"Sammy, Naka, Scott and Artur are not back yet," he added.

"But I've had no calls saying anything untoward has happened to them - they seem to be okay.

"The Scottish guys have come back and been fantastic. This week's training has been terrific."

Meanwhile, Strachan insists he does not need to remind his players of the potential pitfalls of Saturday's trip to the Highlands.

Celtic were subjected to a 3-2 defeat the last time they visited the Caledonian Stadium back in December, while Rangers suffered a surprise loss to then bottom side St Mirren in their last outing.

"I hope there are no twists and turns at the weekend, that's for sure," said Strachan.

"We know that you can get beat, results recently have shown that you can get beat anywhere in this league.

"The organisation, determination and strength of the teams is fantastic.

"We maybe did enough last year to win the game but, from their point of view, their attitude was excellent, they capitalised on the mistakes we made and they held on with grim determination. We know it's hard."

However, Strachan has no complaints about his own team's form both home and abroad so far this season.

"We are doing okay, we are doing fine," he said.

"I've been happy with all of our performances, even in Europe. We could have beaten Aalborg and Villarreal was the best performance we've had away from home as an attacking unit.

"So we are reasonably happy with everything that's going on, but knowing fine well that everybody can beat us."

The only gripe Strachan has ahead of the clash with Inverness is the 12.30 start time, admitting he has yet to warm to the idea of early kick-offs.

"I still think it's very strange," he said.

"Not just for me, but for the supporters, for everybody. The build-up to the game doesn't seem to be right.

"I've found that sometimes the first half can be boring. I was wrong once at Aberdeen, where it was a cracking first half.

"But it's very, very strange for us all to enjoy a game at that time."