Anthony Ralston has confirmed he’s good to go despite appearing to take a knock during the 1-1 stalemate between Celtic and Dundee Utd yesterday.
Ralston took a nasty blow in the second half as he went down holding his shin. However, he managed to dust himself down and finish off the game.
The Celtic right-back certainly didn’t shine against Utd of course. Ralston put in a poor performance all-round like the rest of his teammates. However, Celtic are at the stage where we can’t afford to have any more injury concerns.
And thankfully, there’s nothing lingering with Ralston after the blow he took on the Parkhead turf.
When asked about his potential injury knock via Celtic TV, Ralston said: “I’m feeling fine. It’s part and parcel feeling a wee knock here and there.
“I can’t speak for some of the other boys that have picked up wee niggles today, but get back into the training ground, regroup, focus again, and like I say we’ve got a big game coming on Thursday.
“Yeah we’re disappointed with the result. We wanted to win and we’ve got a point, but we focus on Thursday now and we go into that game head-on.”
Anthony Ralston has the Celtic right-back spot all to himself once more
The plan was that Josip Juranovic was to be Ralston’s main challenger for the right-back spot this season. However, disappointingly, the Croatian has yet to seriously put his mark on the team.
Ange Postecoglou has been too busy playing him out on the left for the most part too. Despite signing back in August, Juranovic has yet to get a run of games in his most comfortable position.
Ralston has been the manager’s go-to instead. You can understand that. Postecoglou will have plenty of trust in the Lennoxtown academy graduate given the connection they’ve struck up in recent months. But the truth is that Ralston hasn’t been deserving of a regular run in recent weeks.
He was caught out for the equaliser against Dundee Utd yesterday. This came after a similarly poor display against Livingston a week earlier and another struggling performance in Betis.
Why the Celtic boss hasn’t turned to Juranovic in the meantime has been difficult to understand. Especially when you have Liam Scales, Adam Montgomery, and Boli Bolingoli all available to play at left-back.
Regardless, we move on. Juranovic is currently sidelined after an injury picked up yesterday. That means a further prolonged period in the side for Ralston. Fingers crossed he can pick up his form.
In other news, Kris Commons lays into Celtic board for “scandalous mismanagement”
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
