Celtic manager Neil Lennon has hailed the depth of his squad as he prepares the team to face St Johnstone in Perth on Sunday lunchtime, The Scottish Daily Mail reports (03/10 print edition, page 121).
The Bhoys have been in Bosnia from Wednesday to Friday over the last few days, facing Sarajevo in the Europa League playoff round.
Having successfully navigated a tough 90 minutes, the squad and coaching staff flew home on Friday afternoon.
That hasn’t left them much time to prepare for tomorrow’s trip north, but it appears Lennon is planning on using some players who require minutes in their legs.
He’s referenced Leigh Griffiths, Hatem Abd Elhamed, Tom Rogic, David Turnbull and Olivier Ntcham as potential performers this weekend.
As quoted by The Scottish Daily Mail (03/10 print edition, page 121), Lennon said: “You saw Elhamed come on and he did very well.
“Griff is almost fit, he’s just lacking a bit of match practice. It’s the same with Rogic.
“We’ve got Turnbull, while we will maybe think about Ntcham, who got ten minutes against Sarajevo.
“We’ve still got some good players to come into what we already have. So, we’ll balance things off as we go along.”
Griffiths and Rogic have yet to make a competitive appearance this season, last seen in a Celtic shirt way back in March, pre-pandemic.
It’s unlikely they’ll start but are clearly contenders to be used off the bench at McDiarmid Park.
Turnbull meanwhile has only managed to come off the bench since making the switch from Motherwell.
The Scottish youngster appeared at the interval last week against Hibernian and performed excellently.
With creative passes, attacking ambition and an assist for Mohamed Elyounousi, he won rave reviews from supporters.
For me, he’s done more than enough to earn a first start against St Johnstone, and hopefully, we see him come in to freshen up the midfield.
In other news, Neil McCann has predicted Celtic will lose the league but was challenged on-air by Michael Stewart.
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