Celtic complete last-minute Europa League registration of Callum Osmand ahead of Midtjylland tie

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It’s been some week for Callum Osmand.

Unfancied under Brendan Rodgers, he has not played a single senior minute since joining the Hoops from Fulham in the summer.

Instead, he had often been seen in the Celtic B team. Ahead of him in the striker pecking order were Daizen Maeda, Johnny Kenny, Kelechi Iheanacho and Shin Yamada.

But what a difference a week can make. The return of Martin O’Neill with Shaun Maloney as assistant has triggered a major change in fortunes for Osmand, who made his debut before scoring his first Celtic goal against Rangers on Sunday.

Osmand wasn’t named in the Rodgers’ initial 25-man Europa League squad, dampening his momentum ahead of Thursday’s tie against Midtyjlland – but Celtic have now manoeuvred to change that.

Callum Osmand brought into Celtic’s Europa League squad

In the past, UEFA haven’t allowed any mid-season changes to European squads, setting clubs’ initial list in stone until January.

But with the number of matches in the European calendar ever-increasing, that changed ahead of this season.

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Celtic were dealt the major injury blow of Cameron Carter-Vickers seeing at least three months out of action last month, and this is why Osmand will come in.

It’s obviously far from ideal to lose a player of Carter-Vickers’ quality, but to have Osmand become available ahead of Thursday’s match will be a major boost for O’Neill.

The decision is also a damning reflection on Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, who also wasn’t named in the initial 25-man squad.

Simpson-Pusey would expect to be the more obvious candidate to replace the American, but the context of this week has obviously changed that.

Midtjylland are top of the competition’s League Phase going into Thursday’s tie at the MCH Arena.

And with plenty of challenging fixtures coming later for the Hoops, a result in Denmark would go a long way to securing their place in the knockout rounds.

The game kicks off at 5.45pm.