Celtic can again call upon the services of Yosuke Ideguchi against Dundee in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday after he missed out against Bodo/Glimt in the UEFA Europa Conference League.
Ideguchi has not been registered for the European knockout stages due to UEFA rules only allowing Celtic to make three changes to the squad registered earlier in the season.
Reo Hatate, Matt O’Riley and Daizen Maeda were all understandably added instead.
That makes Ideguchi an important cog of the domestic challenge though, with his fresh legs and hunger potentially attractive to manager Ange Postecoglou tomorrow.
However, the Celtic boss confirmed after Thursday night’s defeat that he is not expecting any of his injured players to return to the group.
David Turnbull and Kyogo Furuhashi are still nursing hamstring injuries suffered in December. Albian Ajeti is also out of action.
Meanwhile, Mikey Johnston will be out for a little while with the ankle problem he picked up last weekend against Raith Rovers.
Ideguchi has so far only made one start in a Celtic shirt so tomorrow could well be his big opportunity to finally be trusted in the Scottish Premiership against Dundee.
However, his best position just so happens to be where captain Callum McGregor plays, so he has his work cut out to make it into the starting eleven unless the manager fancies handing McGregor a rest.
It will be interesting to see what kind of team Postecoglou goes for tomorrow given all his options and the flat nature of Thursday’s position. It could be a good time to send out a message to a couple of underperformers.
In other news, Referee’s first Celtic game since 2020 tomorrow; Neil Lennon had issues last time.
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