Celtic are trying to prepare Carl Starfelt as much as possible for tomorrow’s Scottish Premiership opener, despite the limited time available.
A ten-day quarantine process meant Starfelt was not able to arrive in Glasgow until yesterday.
The Swedish defender came through his first training session with the squad unscathed this morning, which will have been vital for a potential debut at Tynecastle tomorrow.
Further than that though, Celtic laid out to us the intense day he has ahead prepping for the match against Hearts.
As well as his media duties, Starfelt is going through a barrage of meetings at Lennoxtown this afternoon. There are chats with physios and medical staff, team coaches and the analysis department.
In fact, Starfelt was pulled out of one of these meetings for 15 minutes to answer the questions posed by fan media. As you can imagine, Celtic wanted the outlets to batter through questions as efficiently as possible so he could return to his proper match preparation.
It all points to the Swedish defender making his debut against Hearts and helping out a beleaguered backline that doesn’t have much experience in the Scottish Premiership opener.
I asked Starfelt about being a leader in that defensive line from the start of his Celtic career, to which he replied: “I think that leadership doesn’t always have to do with age. I hope that everyone who is on the pitch will speak a lot and show passion and try to lead the team. Of course, I hope to come in and add to that as well as I can. I feel comfortable doing it.
“I’ve only been here one day and I’ve already seen there are a lot of leaders in this squad, so I’m not worried about that.”
The 26-year-old came across as a confident and eager character at today’s media event and I have no doubt that enthusiasm is also being shown on an intense preparation day.
The circumstances of his arrival aren’t ideal, but the signs are good he can make an immediate impact and help out this team defensively.
In other news, Carl Starfelt lifts the lid on new signing quarantine process at Celtic.
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