NEIL LENNON has explained why he took Christopher Jullien off after the first half at Pittodrie.

With the bhoys 4-0 up and cruising – the Frenchman didn’t re-enter the pitch for the second 45 minutes and was replaced by Nir Bitton at centre back.

This sparked fears among the support their new star defender has succumbed to injury.

However, Neil Lennon has explained the decision and revealed the defender has been suffering from a virus. Meaning he played the first 45 under the weather. With the game all but won it was wise to rest the Frenchman who watched the rest of the game from the dugout.

“He has got a virus.” Lennon told The Sportsound Podcast (22minutes in)

It has been going around, I’ve had it myself for a couple of weeks.

“We hope that he’ll be ok in a couple of days,

“We’ve got St Mirren on Wednesday night and we’ll see how he is”