Dedryck Boyata’s return is clearly near, but he shouldn’t be rushed in for the visit of Hibs tomorrow.
Celtic will look to move one step closer to retaining the Scottish Premiership for an eighth consecutive year tomorrow night. The Easter Road side will prove to be stiff challengers, but the Hoops should be confident.
Even so, they’re going to have to do it with plenty of injury and suspension problems. Filip Benkovic remains out, whilst Kristoffer Ajer is suspended for picking up a red card against St Johnstone at the weekend.
Fortunately, Boyata is clearly close to returning to action. He was snapped by Celtic’s official Twitter account taking part in training yesterday (Monday). Added to that, Chris Davies also spoke in the Scottish Sun about how Celtic will assess the Belgian before tomorrow.
“Boyata trained on Monday, having been out for a couple of weeks, so we’ll see how he reacts, then we’ll see what his availability is like for Wednesday night.”
Celtic can get by without him for now
Despite the injury problems that are sweeping through the club, the Hoops can’t afford to rush Boyata back to action.
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He’s Celtic’s best hope of returning to action soon and adding more options to the centre-back position. If he’s rushed back and is aggravated further, then the Hoops really will be in trouble.
Against Hibs, Celtic can make do without him considering the game is at Parkhead. Nir Bitton has been playing first reserve in recent matches, and can be relied upon to slot in against the Easter Road side and do a job.
Celtic are clearly close to getting some of their stars back, and it’s imperative they manage them appropriately. Davies was hesitant to say whether Boyata would play a part, and acknowledged the fact the Belgian needs protected.
The best way forward would be to just leave him out of tomorrow’s match given his long period out. There’s bigger and tougher games approaching than Wednesday night, and Celtic can get by regardless.
Would you throw Boyata in against Hibs? Let us know in the comments below