Greg Taylor is expected to be available for the upcoming Celtic visit to Ibrox on Monday despite coming off with a knock during Wednesday’s win over Hibernian.
The left-back looked in some discomfort and was replaced by Alexandro Bernabei in the second half of the 4-0 win at Easter Road, but manager Ange Postecoglou was relaxed about the situation in a post-match press conference and stated his substitution was more of a precaution.
The player himself has since posted on Instagram he is ‘ready for Monday’, allaying any fears he’s picked up an injury that will keep him out.
Anthony Ralston is a decent shout to make it too. The way Postecoglou spoke about the Celtic stalwart in the build-up to Hibs suggested he had a shot of making the match squad for that one and that his return to training was being measured in days rather than weeks.
With another half-week of rest hopefully he has again rejoined preparations for the derby, where he could even feature in the starting line-up.
That depends on the call Postecoglou makes at right-back with Josip Juranovic returning to the fray and even Alistair Johnston now available for action after his transfer from CF Montreal.
The Croatian was named on the bench against Hibs but didn’t come on as a substitute, leaving a question mark on his fitness status. Johnston, meanwhile, has been training with the squad for a number of weeks after his exploits with Canada at the World Cup.
Through it all, the odds look decent that Reo Hatate will not be required on the right flank and moved back into a more familiar midfield position.
There’s hope Sead Haksabanovic will at least make the match squad too despite missing Wednesday night. Postecoglou suggested in a pre-match interview he had picked up a foot knock but it didn’t sound particularly long-term.
Jota will again be a contender to start the fixture after only featuring off the bench following a stomach bug last week.
Fitness levels are strong throughout the rest of the squad apart from James McCarthy, who is out for a while after a hamstring injury, and Stephen Welsh, who has missed the last few weeks of training.
New signing Yuki Kobayashi is also available to be named in the squad, although it’s unlikely he’d be thrown into such a high-profile match after Postecoglou suggested it would take time for him to be introduced into match action.
Tomoki Iwata has yet to travel to Scotland to join up with the squad despite today’s transfer announcement.
In other news, Report: Celtic schedule talks for red-hot Danish forward.
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