SLOVAN BRATISLAVA boss Vladimir Weiss faces a race against time to recover and see his side make their Champions League group stages bow at Celtic this week after missing two games in a row.
Celtic open their campaign as huge favourites against the Slovakian champions, who are playing in the group stages for the first time.
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Slovan warmed up for the game with a last-gasp 2-1 win at Dunajska Streda thanks to a late penalty.
However, veteran boss Weiss was absent from his second game in a row after also missing their Slovakian Cup midweek victory against AC Nitra too.
And his assistant manager Boris Kitka admitted the club’s manager will be assessed to see if he is fit enough to travel to Glasgow.
He said: “Vladimir has had a pretty bad virus for the last few days, almost since the beginning of the week.
“We hope he will be better as soon as possible.
“For the last three to four days he was really not feeling well, he had high temperatures and the weather here is not ideal either, so he stayed at home.
“I think we controlled the game very well and I want to praise the players for the way they reacted to losing a goal.
“It’s always very difficult to win here and I have to point out that the players’ attitude was exemplary.
“We are in a good place for the challenges that await us.”
And Slovan goal hero Tigran Barseghyan insisted they are confident ahead of their trip to Scotland.
The Armenian international winger said: “We are going to Celtic to try and win the game.
“When you have a strong mentality like we have in this team, you can believe anything.”
Weiss is the father of namesake Vladimir who enjoyed a loan spell at Rangers more than a decade ago.
Weiss Jnr, 34, spent the 2010/11 season on loan at Ibrox and became a cult hero as the Gers retained the league title.
The former Manchester City trainee now captains Slovan.
Celtic beat Hearts 2-0 to keep their 100 per-cent start to the season going ahead of their first European showdown of the season.
Speaking after that victory, Celts boss Brendan Rodgers issued a Champions League battle cry.
He said: “The mindset is strong and we are ready to attack the competition.
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“We know the level we’ll be playing at, but that’s OK. We’ll go and give it everything.
“We want to make a really positive start on Wednesday. We’ll never forget our bread and butter, because it’s so important. It’s the lives of so many supporters.
“We can never, ever discount that and we can never, ever think it’s easy.
“People say it’s easy here, but it’s certainly not because of the demand, expectation, the mentality that you need to succeed.
“Thankfully, we have a winning culture here, but we have to make the next steps — and that means Europe.
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“At the very highest level, it was a real tough challenge for us last season, and for so many really good managers before me it’s been a challenge also.
“But we’re hoping now that with a strong squad, with improvements still to make in our play, that we can go and really attack it. And we’re excited by that.”
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