Celtic defender Stephen Welsh appears to have avoided any broken bones or ligament damage when he picked up an injury during the recent win over St Mirren.
Welsh required a stretcher to leave the field in Paisley, replaced by Shane Duffy.
Replays showed him take a nasty knock to his ankle after a challenge from St Mirren man Jon Obika.
There was significant concern that the youngster might be missing for a considerable period of time.
The Daily Record reports that the extent of the damage is ‘severe bruising’ only after the club sent the defender for a medical check-up.
He will now be assessed ahead of Sunday’s match away to St Johnstone.
Stephen Welsh return from injury can’t come quick enough
With Celtic failing to strengthen in the January transfer window, Celtic had been facing a dire scenario should Welsh have been absent.
Duffy has failed to impress throughout the season. Persisting with him at centre-back between now and May would have been far from ideal. He’s been making consistent errors, leading to goalscoring chances for the opposition.
The Irish captain has no long-term future at the club and we need to bring players such as Welsh through as regulars to help build for the future.
The sooner that Welsh is back to action, the better it is for Celtic.
From the sound of this recent report, that likely won’t be on Sunday. So we’ll be running the Duffy gauntlet at least one more time.
In other news, Celtic are showing interest in signing a Polish defender.
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