Carl Starfelt finally looks set for his big Sweden opportunity with an injury crisis appearing to sweep through the nation’s top centre-backs.
Today, Victor Lindelof has been confirmed as being out of the squad for the June camp [Manchester Evening News]. The Manchester United man won’t be available to face any of the 4 matches against Slovenia, Norway [x2], and Serbia respectively.
Marcus Danielson, the other half of Sweden’s top centre-back pairing, wasn’t even called up to the squad due to injury. Both Danielson and Lindelof were the main duo during their failed Qatar 2022 qualifying bid.
Not to mention that Starfelt’s potentially biggest rival for a spot – Filip Helander – also hasn’t been called up due to injury.
Indeed, Carl is up against Armenia Bielefeld’s Joakim Nilsson and AIK defender Alexander Milosevic for a spot. With all due respect to both, Starfelt has been operating at a higher level this season.
That means 3 of the players likely ahead of Starfelt in the pecking order have been deemed unavailable. With such an intense fixture list coming up for the Swedes, it should mean Starfelt’s first ever competitive start for his country is about to happen.
Carl Starfelt finally looks set to be rewarded at int’l level for his Celtic form
Starfelt has done more than enough to impress the Celtic supporters after a tricky start at Parkhead. It looked for a period as if he would struggle to make it here. But the truth is any fears over how he would fare here dissipated fairly quickly.
Next on his agenda will be doing the same on the international stage. Not least because it’ll give him experience against some of the top strikers in world football.
Carl has already done the hard bit. He’s got himself noticed by Andersson once again. That’s a big boost for him and a sign that the Sweden boss has belief in him to do a job for his country.
Another boost for Starfelt is that June’s camp marks the beginning of a new campaign. A chance for Andersson to make changes and go for different personnel. Something that will surely be in the thoughts of the Sweden boss with his injury crisis.
It’s difficult to see how Carl doesn’t get his big opportunity at this rate. Finally he looks set to be properly rewarded for his Celtic form. That won’t have gone unnoticed by Andersson, and neither will the fact that Carl will be a Champions League defender as of next season.
Hopefully, that means he’ll be thrown into their first game against Slovenia on Thursday night.
In other news, Gustavo Hamer now said to be valued at around £10m after 2022 Celtic link
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