Celtic striker Giorgos Giakoumakis will miss Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final vs Rangers, Ange Postecoglou has confirmed in a press conference today.
Giakoumakis limped off with an apparent hamstring injury during last week’s thrilling 7-0 victory over St Johnstone.
He was always a major doubt for the fixture after that and he is now definitely out.
The news came from the Glasgow Is Green podcast, who were in attendance at today’s pre-match press conference.
Given his form in 2022, this is obviously a blow for the Bhoys. The forward has netted 12 goals since the turn of the year.
Thankfully, Postecoglou has a number of other viable options for the fixture and a strong eleven will be fielded regardless.
Although he was coy about starting Kyogo Furuhashi last week, the Japanese forward is in the back pocket for this one from the bench, while Daizen Maeda is also a candidate to start through the middle.
It also means Liel Abada could be given a starting berth on the right-wing, in a slight reshuffle of the front three.
I’m told Giakoumakis shouldn’t be out for too long so he will be available for the Scottish Premiership run-in. That is the silver lining from today’s Ange update.
It felt like an injury was inevitable at Celtic given how well things were going but we’ll just have to cope without the Greek and bring him back for the final!
In other news, A timely reminder for Celtic.
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