Leigh Griffiths’ issues off the pitch will leave him out of action indefinitely.
First and foremost, we at 67HailHail wish the Hoops forward all the best. He so often overcomes opposition defences on the park, and certainly has the strength to beat his inner demons off it.
His performances for Celtic over the last near six years have been sensational. He’s scored over 100 goals for the club, with many of them so memorable for Hoops fans.
Griffiths’ absence has no time-frame set on it, and the word indefinitely is certainly a scary one. Here’s to a swift recovery from Scotland’s best striker.
For Brendan Rodgers, he has to turn his attentions now to on-pitch matters. The reality of this situation now is that Celtic are incredibly light up front and need recruits in desperately.
The club only have Odsonne Edouard as a viable front-man. The likes of Scott Sinclair and Ryan Christie have played as a false-nine in the past, but it’s rarely worked when given a shot.
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From now until January, Edouard will have to play every minute of every game. That’s down to the fact that Celtic can’t afford to slip-up in any of them, and they can’t sign anyone until January.
The winter break is a huge relief for Celtic this year
The Winter break gives Celtic a huge chance to re-evaluate things, but until then Celtic have a big problem with only one striker.
Even before Griffiths’ indefinite departure, Celtic needed a third man to come in and compete. There has been no speculation over a January signing up front, but that is surely now set to change.
Celtic just need to pray nothing happens to their big Frenchman over the next couple of weeks. Not having him for the trip to Ibrox or Pittodrie would be a killer, and would seriously affect how Celtic play.
The other alternative is to bring forward the likes of Jack Aitchison from the youth set-up. But tossing him into big games against that kind of opposition would be too big an occasion.
Everyone will be hoping Griffiths can battle those demons he’s fighting. It’s vital that he gets his life back on track and makes himself happy again.
Until then, however, Rodgers has a problem of his own until January.