Martin O’Neill has admitted that he was surprised by the news of Kasper Schmeichel’s injury blow.
The Celtic boss revealed that he may never play again due to the required surgery on his shoulder, which is now significantly damaged after a period of playing with painkilling injections.
O’Neill had been somewhat optimistic around the 39-year-old’s fitness situation, often playing down the well-documented injury.
But for Schmeichel, the worst-case scenario is now playing out, and the Hoops boss has commented on the devastating news for the first time.
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Martin O’Neill on injury to Celtic’s Kasper Schmeichel
At his press conference ahead of Celtic’s clash with Dundee United this weekend, O’Neill said: “Yeah, I must admit I was surprised at the severity of it.
“I know that he was having injections to play in some of the games, and that’s not a great remedy. I must admit I didn’t realise how bad it was.
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“So yeah, disappointed to hear the news, I must admit.
“Absolutely, [I thought he was close to playing]. He’d come in to train, I thought he was getting back from that. But yeah, it was disappointing to hear.
“I think just after the Rangers game, in which he wasn’t involved, in the first one he got an injection. I don’t think that went terribly well, he was telling me.
“It caused a lot of inflammation more than anything else. In fact, it did the opposite. But he was making decent progress at the time, then he’s got back to find out that it’s just too bad to continue.”
On the way that Schmeichel delivered the news, O’Neill said: “No, I didn’t think that Kasper was going to announce it, but he was with his dad at the time, and I think the dad was telling him ‘you must announce it here today’.
“I am joking, I am joking…
“Yeah, so I think that Tim [Williamson] our physio was aware that the scan had shown up much worse than we thought.
“So I wasn’t expecting to hear that. I didn’t gear it first-hand, I heard it second-hand. But you know, it is what it is.”
You have £10m to spend on a new goalkeeper to replace Kasper Schmeichel…
Who do you pick?
Schmeichel won’t be back in action for at least another ten months after the devastating news he was told by his specialist.
This means he won’t play for Celtic again unless he extends his contract, which appears unlikely at this stage, and he won’t be involved as Denmark push to qualify for the World Cup later this month.
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