Celtic assistant boss Chris Davies reckons Cedric Kipre's wild lunge on Moussa Dembele could have wrecked the Hoops hitman's career.

Dembele, who is set to miss tonight’s Ladbrokes Premiership encounter with Motherwell and is a serious doubt for next week's Champions League showdown with Anderlecht, was on the receiving end of a reckless challenge from Well's Kipre during Sunday’s Betfred Cup final at Hampden.

Kipre was later sent off for a foul on Scott Sinclair which led to a penalty for Celtic and sparked angry claims that the Hoops striker had taken a dive.

Dembele would score the spot kick to effectively seal the silverware for Brendan Rodgers’ men but his injury has flared up since then.

And asked if Kipre’s challenge could have had serious repercussions for the Celtic star’s career, Davies agreed wholeheartedly: “Absolutely. The more you watch the tackle back, the worse it gets. It’s one of those ones.

“Moussa’s got a swollen ankle. It was a very poorly timed tackle so he’s looking like he’s unavailable now for Wednesday. We’ll have to see how he goes because of the tackle.

“He’s had a bad twist to the ankle and the contact as well. It could have been much, much worse. Thankfully for him, it’s not. We’ll just have to see how he goes.

“Thankfully, Moussa’s quite physically robust. With a bit of luck he’s avoided that situation (of a major injury). Hopefully it’s not too long. It’s early stages with the swelling. We’ll need to wait for that to go down.

“After 72 hours you can start to get a clearer picture on a twist. But it’s not a long term thing. Hopefully he’ll be okay.

“Obviously the link is that it was the same player (Kipre) who was involved (in the penalty). If anything, there’s a debate as to whether that player should even have been on the pitch at that point which completely turns the tables.

“From our perspective, full credit to Motherwell for getting to the final. What I’m saying is that this incident shouldn’t overshadow how dominant we were and how much we deserved to win the game.

"If anything, there’s a debate whether that player should even have been on the pitch at that point which completely turns the tables.”

The meeting with Motherwell tonight is the second of three matches between the clubs in the space of seven days.

And while many have taken a swipe at the scheduling and have suggested it questions the credibility of the domestic set-up, Davies prefers not to get involved with the fixture frenzy.

He added: “It’s a unique situation, playing the same team three times in quick succession.

“With the schedule and Celtic fighting on all fronts I’d anticipate sometimes scheduling issues like this would sometimes arise. So in that sense, I would say it is understandable.”