Joe Hart has a positive outlook on Celtic’s current injury situation.
The Celtic goalkeeper is likely to have an unsettled defence ahead of him for some weeks to come. The club are currently without four first-team centre-backs: Cameron Carter-Vickers, Maik Nawrocki, Stephen Welsh and Yuki Kobayashi.
Reo Hatate, Mikey Johnston, Marco Tilio and Hyeongyu Oh are some of the other players currently out through injury. It’s a pretty tough situation that has been amplified by the likes of Carl Starfelt and Jota departing this summer.
But experienced stalwart Hart reckons there is no option but to get on with things as he brought up a classic period in 2021 when things may have been even worse.
“We have injuries but you go through these patches,” he told the Daily Record.
“In my time here, we’ve had moments when we’ve literally too many guys and not enough training pitches and then we’ve had moments when we’ve had to adapt and put people in other positions.
“It makes me smile to think back to the first time we won the League Cup in my time, with the team we put out and the subs we brought on.
“So, we’ve got a deep resolve. We’re all in it for the good and looking to push forward.”
The team that started that cup final victory over Hibernian wasn’t actually horrendous.
It read: Hart, Juranovic, Carter-Vickers, Starfelt, Taylor, McGregor, Rogic, Turnbull, Abada, Kyogo, Mikey Johnston. The subs that day were Nir Bitton, Anthony Ralston, Owen Moffat and Liam Scales.
Things were even bleaker a few days later when Scales, Ralston, Moffat, Bitton, Stephen Welsh and Liel Abada (up front) all started in a 0-0 draw away to St. Mirren.
The team ground that period out and went on to win the league once players returned in January and beyond. That’s an important lesson the team for the team now.
Over the coming weeks and months, we may need to dig in to the same extent.
In other news, improved Celtic Park experience highlighted in neat club video
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