Brendan Rodgers has already made a decision he hasn’t had to make this season up until now.
The Celtic manager has enjoyed the ever-presence of Kasper Schmeichel since the big Dane made his switch to Parkhead in the summer.
Schmeichel has replaced fan favourite Joe Hart with flying colours and has played every single minute of competitive Celtic football this season.
We’re only just into February and the 38-year-old has played a mammoth 38 games for the Bhoys with 22 clean sheets to boot.
But for the first time, Schmeichel will be left out of the Celtic squad versus Raith Rovers today in the Scottish Cup due to injury.
That was confirmed by Rodgers at his pre-match press conference on Friday with Schmeichel suffering a small issue with his back.
Brendan Rodgers hails soon-to-be Celtic debutant Viljami Sinisalo
With that, it means a debut for 23-year-old back-up stopper Viljami Sinisalo, who has waited a long time for this special moment.
Sinisalo joined Celtic from Aston Villa for £1m in the summer and featured in some pre-season games in the USA.
But this time, it’s for real and the Finland international has been given the big licks by Rodgers ahead of his first Celtic start.
Rodgers has praised the patience of Sinisalo this season and has no qualms over his ability to step in for Schmeichel against Raith.
Rodgers said: “Viljami Sinisalo will start and go. Kasper had a little issue with his back. So he’ll miss out in the game.
“And like I’ve seen in pre-season with Viljami, he’s a young goalkeeper who came in and played those games really well and so I’m really looking forward to seeing him make his debut.
“He’s a great boy and that’s always a challenge, he’d come in here but he’s known that having been at Villa and then investing his time playing down in England with Exeter.
“He knew then coming into here he’s got a real top-class goalkeeper to learn from so sometimes you have to invest your time into learning.
“We took him in, we’d seen him play, obviously represented Finland as well. Very, very talented young goalkeeper has come in, been patient, understands the role at this point so it’s really nice for him now to get the opportunity.
“So I’ve seen him in pre-season, I’ve seen him through the season since and yeah, I’ve got no doubts.”
Gary Caldwell sold Sinisalo on Celtic summer switch
It doesn’t take much convincing for players to sign for Celtic – see Jeffrey Schlupp as the most recent example after his January deadline day move from Crystal Palace.
So when former Celtic centre-back and Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell first told Sinisalo about the Bhoys’ interest in him back in March, the Fin’s mind was made up quickly.
Sinisalo revealed in September last year: “He (Caldwell) was the first one to tap me up when the interest started early on back in March time.
“He was telling me, ‘You’ve got to do this. This is something that doesn’t come about a lot of times in your career, and when you get this opportunity, you’ve got to take it.’
“That was pretty much what everyone else said when I spoke to them about the interest. There wasn’t really a doubt in my mind. This was going to be the destination I was heading to.
“He was very complimentary about the club. He said I’m going to sign for the best club in the world, so they were very fond words.”
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