Derek McInnes has revealed that midfielder Craig Bryson could play a “significant” part against Celtic.
Aberdeen have been ravaged by injury concerns in recent weeks. However, over the last week or two, they’ve slowly been getting men back into their squad.
They now have their first-choice backline all available, for example. Scott McKenna, Shay Logan, Mikey Devlin, and Greg Leigh are all fit. As for Bryson, however, he’s only made five appearances, and his last outing came against St Johnstone back in September.
But, in a big boost for Aberdeen, McInnes has stated he should be ready to play against us on Sunday. Speaking in the Press and Journal, this is what McInnes said on his midfielder.
“If Craig continues to train as he has done this week, then he’ll certainly be available to play a significant part of the game.
“Can he play 90 minutes? That I’m not convinced of. But having been out since the St Johnstone game – which is over six weeks now – it might not be the wisest decision to try to force 90 minutes into him.
“I think he is frustrated. He came with that reputation. We wanted him to be the one that would not make us miss Graeme as much, in terms of that driving force in the team, that dynamic midfield player.
“There is no doubt, I think, that we will be a better team once Craig is fully fit.”
McGregor and Rogic should be rubbing their hands
Bryson has a fine CV, let’s get that out of the way first and foremost. He’s done tremendously well to make himself a hero with Derby County, and has now been trusted to be the man to replace Graeme Shinnie int he Granite City.
But the fact is he hasn’t been fully fit since he arrived at Pittodrie. Bryson is technically extremely gifted, but big question marks will hover over his fitness levels.
At the same time, he’ll be coming into a game against the likes of Callum McGregor and Tom Rogic. The former is fully-fit and starting to fire, whilst Rogic will be looking to make his mark in the number 10 position.
McInnes is clearly ready to toss Bryson in and hope his experience can play a positive role against Celtic. He spoke in the same piece about not being too sure of playing Zak Vyner and Greg Leigh in the midfield again. That’s what he tried at Fir Park, but it looks a risk doing so against Celtic.
The one thing Bryson will have is determination and anger with regards to how things have gone for him. He’ll need to make an impact, and will be feeling the pressure of having to replace cult-hero Shinnie.
But if McInnes takes that risk on Sunday, it could seriously backfire and give Celtic a huge advantage. It’s a big boost for Aberdeen that he’s ready to play, but against such opposition, we have to be optimistic.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
