Celtic to arrange bounce game as Ange Postecoglou eyes international break benefits

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Ange Postecoglou is looking forward to a productive international break for Celtic and the benefits it can bring to his squad.

A number of Celtic players including Carl Starfelt, Tom Rogic, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate are heading off around the world to represent their countries.

While Postecoglou will obviously be keeping his fingers crossed all of them return unharmed, he reckons the two weeks is a good window for others in the squad to boost their fitness.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, which 67 Hail Hail attended, the Bhoys boss said: “David Turnbull has worked hard at training over the last seven to ten days. It was good to get him out there, I’m sure he was pleased to get a run. It’s now just about building him up.

“The next two weeks, obviously we lose a few to national teams. I don’t think that’s a bad thing – they get away from the routine club environment and refresh themselves. Others, we’ll give a little bit of a break to.

“Guys like Turnbull and a few others, we can put some really good work into them. Hopefully, we can arrange a bounce game during this break. We know when everyone comes back that’ll be it until the end of the year. It’ll be great to have a fit and healthy squad for that.”

Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but this all sounds suspiciously like the perfect kind of recovery for a certain Kyogo Furuhashi, who is expected to rejoin training at some point over the next two weeks.

Obviously, that hasn’t been confirmed and I’m sure a bounce game would be beneficial for more players than just him, but my fingers are crossed.

At the very least, Turnbull would be boosted by a proper training game against an outside team. It would serve him well for the closing stages of the season. With others also needing game time like this, such as Christopher Jullien, the international break could be ideal for the Bhoys.

In other news, Ange update on Celtic midfielder Tom Rogic after hobbling off from red card tackle.