Brendan Rodgers admits that the recent spate of Celtic first-team injuries has been frustrating.
The Hoops boss is still very early on in his second stint at the club, but fitness issues have played a major role in his first few months back in Glasgow.
Celtic have been without the likes of Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Reo Hatate for significant periods so far this season.
Even new signings like Marco Tilio and Maik Nawrocki have suffered medium term muscle injuries. They are two of at least nine players currently on the sidelines and unavailable to Rodgers.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said in a Celtic TV interview. “You want to have your best players available and clearly that’s not the case for us.
“But you have to get on with it. It’s just been the nature of it over the course of pre-season.
“We just to have to deal with it. We’ve got lots of capable players in the squad and I’m sure they’ll step up.”
Celtic’s deputising players didn’t seem to step up much in our weekend cup defeat to Kilmarnock. We could really do with the likes of Gustaf Lagerbielke, Odin Thiago Holm and Hyunjun Yang offering us something big in the coming weeks.
That may be a tall order given that all three have just joined, and we do face Rangers at Ibrox in ten days. But that may be what’s required to get us out of this tough situation.
Rodgers was surprisingly asked about that upcoming derby despite Celtic having St. Johnstone to face first this weekend.
Celtic TV interviewer Gerry McCulloch explained that club media wouldn’t have the chance to sit down with the boss again until after the derby match.
“It’s a great place to go and win for a Celtic manager and a Celtic player,” the Hoops boss said of the looming fixture.
“That will be our aim on the day. There’s always tough, tense games. We’ll go there and look to play at the level we want to play, in terms of performance.
“If we can do that then we’ll always be in with a chance of getting a result.”
Let’s hope that we have a few of our injured players back and available for that huge fixture.
In other news, Celtic midfielder Reo Hatate has rejected a new contract offer
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