Celtic manager Neil Lennon has provided a timescale for Ryan Christie’s potential return.
Christie injured himself in the 2-1 defeat to Rangers at Parkhead on December 29th. The attacker missed a penalty against our rivals before picking up a retrospective three-match ban in what ended up as a game to forget for him.
Away from all of that, however, he’s clearly been struggling with a groin knock recently too that required surgery. There had yet to be an update on his current conditioning before Lenny spoke to the Scottish Sun yesterday.
And the Hoops boss touched on his timeframe for a return ahead of a crucial second-half of the season:
“With Ryan’s injury, he’s recovering from groin surgery. He may miss the first week of the restart, but we hope he will be back for the second. He can’t do anything out here”
Christie missing plenty of prep work after surgery
It’s a concern to hear that Ryan is missing all of the prep work going into the second half of the season. In an ideal world, he would be building up his fitness and getting back into the swing of things with the rest of his teammates.
As it stands, Christie is set to miss games against Partick Thistle, Kilmarnock, and Ross County respectively. Killie away looks the most tricky out of those fixtures, and not having him for that one will be a blow. With Tom Rogic generally his most likely replacement, you have to wonder whether Lenny will want to risk him on the astro at Rugby Park.
In any case, who knows how long it will take Christie to get up to speed with the rest of the group? The first match he’ll be available to feature in is on January 29th. Big question marks have to be asked as to whether he’ll even be match-sharp by that point. It could take him a further week or two to really start picking things up.
Surgery takes away prep work
Had he managed to stay fit and not require groin surgery, he could’ve been ticking along nicely until his ban was over. His current knock has robbed him of that, and he’ll effectively have missed four weeks or so of training by the time he returns going by the updated timescale.
Fortunately, you would expect us to deal with the opposition we have during that period with relative ease. Outside of Killie away, Christie shouldn’t miss any games that could be perceived as difficult. But the fact he’s not doing a single thing in Dubai is a big concern, and could easily push him back a couple of weeks before we see the best out of him.
Hopefully, we have him back and up to speed ASAP. If Celtic are going to have a successful second half of the season, Christie will be vital to it.
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