Celtic play their first away Scottish Premiership fixture since the beginning of January when they travel up to face Aberdeen at Saturday lunchtime.
The Sky Sports televised fixture will see Brendan Rodgers go up against stand-in Dons boss Peter Leven after Barry Robson was sacked in midweek following a poor run of results.
Celtic will be aiming to go eight points clear at the top of the league before Rangers face a struggling Livingston side. With that in mind, it’s vital the Hoops do their all to collect all three points at Pittodrie.
Rodgers added Nicolas Kuhn and deadline day signing Adam Idah to his squad during the January transfer window and confirmed the latter – who was recruited from Norwich City on loan – will be in the squad to face Aberdeen.
However, the manager had some gut-wrenching news to confirm about Reo Hatate at his Friday press conference as well as a disheartening update on Cameron Carter-Vickers. Rodgers also provided a brief note on the fitness of Tomoki Iwata.
Celtic injury news latest
Reo Hatate
Reo Hatate has been away with Japan for the Asian Cup and played in his country’s last 16 victory over Bahrain on 31 January.
However, the midfielder was worryingly forced off the park with a calf injury just 36 minutes into the encounter. Japan boss Hajime Moriyasu then confirmed Hatate was injured but steered clear of providing any further details.
Now, Brendan Rodgers has delivered exactly what Celtic fans did not want to hear at his presser in Lennoxtown today.
Asked about Hatate’s current condition, the Northern Irishman replied: “It looks like he’s actually done both of his calves from what I’ve seen. So he’s probably going to be five to six weeks from what I hear.
“So it’s another part of the season where we’ve had no luck from an injury perspective. So he’ll be back very soon with us and then we’ll start the treatment on him and get him back as fit as we can.”
Cameron Carter-Vickers
There was a suggestion amongst fans that because Gustaf Lagerbielke’s route out of Celtic was blocked in January, it meant Cameron Carter-Vickers had picked up another injury.
Well, it turns out that is exactly what has happened. Rodgers confirmed this and revealed the timeline for the American defender’s return.
Asked if he will be out for as long as Hatate, Rodgers replied: “No, not as long. The medical team are probably saying around three weeks.”
Tomoki Iwata
Versatile Japanese fringe man Tomoki Iwata is currently injured and Rodgers gave a brief update after being asked to deliver what his situation looks like at the moment.
Rodgers told the media: “He’s back in the training field but he’s not available to play so still waiting on that.”
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