Celtic will be without defender Cameron Carter-Vickers for this weekend’s Scottish Premiership trip to face St Johnstone, Brendan Rodgers has confirmed.
Carter-Vickers has been nursing a foot injury in recent weeks and was forced to miss last weekend’s Scottish League Cup victory over Falkirk.
His continued absence is a blow to the manager’s options but new signing Auston Trusty is expected to come in alongside Liam Scales in the heart of the Bhoys defence.
Rodgers has also provided an update on right-back Alistair Johnston after he was also absent for Sunday’s 5-2 win at Celtic Park.
Brendan Rodgers addresses Carter-Vickers and Johnston issues
Speaking to Sky Sports on Friday afternoon, the manager said: “He’ll miss tomorrow. He’s just got a pain on his big toe. We just have to look at that each game. He’s been playing with it for a little while. We have to try and manage it now because he was in pain vs Slovan Bratislava.
“Hopefully it’ll settle down quickly and we’ll see where it’s at for Tuesday. It’s difficult to tell. We’re just concentrating on this game and then we’ll see where he is on Sunday or Monday.”
On Johnston, he said: “He’s trained all week and been good. It’s great, the Falkirk game gave us a chance to recover one or two of the players who had niggles.”
A tough week will test Celtic’s squad
Celtic have three away matches in succession over the next nine days and they will provide the sternest test of Rodgers’ squad depth so far this season.
After Perth, it’s off to Germany on Tuesday night for the daunting task of facing last season’s Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund.
Then, next weekend, there’s a lengthy trip to play Ross County in Dingwall in the final match before the October international break. That’s not ideal after what is likely to be an energy-sapping European performance.
The Bhoys have started the season in blistering fashion but this is a tricky series of matches, no doubt.
We’ll find out a lot about the squad’s capabilities to fight on all fronts as the season progresses and the schedule becomes busier.
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