New Celtic signing James McCarthy is in the frame to make his Hoops debut against Dundee on Sunday.
Whilst Joe Hart quickly made his way to the Czech Republic after signing for the Hoops, McCarthy stayed at home. The Daily Mail reported after the move that he would meet his new teammates after tomorrow’s Europa League clash vs Jablonec.
McCarthy played in the final three league games of last season for Crystal Palace. However, he’s since been training on his own in a bid to stay fit.
But despite potential concerns over his sharpness, Postecoglou has said he’s firmly in the frame to debut this weekend.
Speaking via Celtic TV, Postecoglou said: “With James we’ll just have to assess him. The difference with James is that he wasn’t training with a club, he was just training on his own whilst Joe was with Tottenham.
“So we made a decision leave him back in Glasgow. He’ll have a session today and tomorrow with our staff there, and then we’ll have a look at him on Saturday.
“I know he’s been working hard on his own and he’s keen to get started. But we are mindful with him that he hasn’t done any team training yet. We’ll probably make a decision on him closer to the weekend in terms of availability (vs Dundee).”
James McCarthy will be itching for Celtic debut as quickly as possible
So as things stand, there’s been no firm decision made on whether McCarthy will feature on Sunday or not. But he’s certainly in the frame with the Celtic fitness staff having a big decision to make.
Celtic fans will be extremely keen to see what the Republic of Ireland international can offer. However, at the same time, we can’t be too careful given James’ injury issues in the past.
Celtic will want to make sure they’re integrating McCarthy at the right time. Even though Carl Starfelt and Kyogo Furuhashi were rushed into things against Hearts, Ange stated that was an “unfair” move on both of them [Celtic TV].
That suggests he wouldn’t be too keen to throw McCarthy in too soon. Then again, it looks as if the smart money is on Joe Hart to be given his debut as soon as tomorrow night against Jablonec.
So it all comes down to whether the player is ready. Whether he can be thrown in without having had any team training over the last three months.
Respectively, Dundee at home is as smooth a fixture as a player could have for his Celtic debut. Fingers crossed he makes it in time.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou delivers interesting Celtic Sporting Director update
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