Celtic youngster Tony Ralston has been confirmed to be out “for a while” by manager Brendan Rodgers.
There wasn’t much to be disappointed with last night. Celtic were in imperious form as they mauled St Mirren 4-0 at Celtic Park. It keeps up their sensational Parkhead record of winning every domestic home match.
Added to that, Rangers were taken down a peg as they fell to a 2-1 loss at Kilmarnock. It means Celtic sit just one point ahead of Killie, but three of Rangers with a game in-hand. It was certainly a beautiful night.
But it did have its downsides too unfortunately. Before the St Mirren clash, Rodgers had an exclusive interview with BBC Radio Scotland. It was there he confirmed that Ralston would be out for a period of time after going over on his ankle.
“Tony Ralston has been very good for us but he had a bad injury at the weekend which is going to put him out for number of weeks which is really disappointing.
“Laterally in the game he landed really awkwardly, damaged quite badly his ankle ligaments so that is going to put him out for a while but he have the experience of Mikael to come in.
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“Sometimes you can’t do anything about injuries, he twisted his ankle and that’s just unfortunate”
Ralston just can’t catch a break
Is there a player at Celtic Park who’s been more unfortunate than young Ralston? Just as he was getting a real power of momentum behind him, it’s been robbed from him.
This season, he’s only played four games this season, but they came in four of the last five matches. He was starting to freeze out Mikael Lustig, and looked a reliable figure when doing so.
But just like last season, after he’d made seven appearances within two months of the season, he was struck down with injury. At that point, he had to go and revive his career at Dundee United.
It’s hopefully an unnecessary move to try and put him on loan yet again, as he’s showing terrific promise here.
In the meantime, it gives Lustig another opportunity to try and change fan opinion on him. Cristian Gamboa wasn’t even on the bench last night, showing just how far down the pecking order he personally is too.