Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has offered the injury latest ahead of the team’s Premiership start.
The Hoops are back in action on Saturday lunchtime when Ross County visit Celtic Park for Flag Day.
Celtic‘s pre-season was a positive one, but it did see a number of first-team players coming in to the campaign with existing injuries.
Two of the more high-profile examples were Cameron Carter-Vickers and Anthony Ralston, but the pair did return in the midweek win over Athletic Club.
“Both of those players came through very well during the week,” Rodgers said during his Thursday press conference. (Celtic YouTube)
“We’ve got another day to go but they’re back with the squad. They probably aren’t as up to speed as some of the other boys are but they still look in very good condition.
“We’ll just take a look at them tomorrow [Friday]. Apart from that, just the guys that have been out for a little bit of time are still a little bit off it.
“But over the course of the next three to four weeks some more will return.”
So Rodgers wasn’t giving too much away. It’s still difficult to know whether Carter-Vickers or Ralston will start against Ross County.
Both looked good to go on Tuesday night, but the Celtic manager may look to ease them in to the season given their recent troubles.
Alistair Johnston is another Celtic defender who has been absent during pre-season. Rodgers didn’t offer a direct update on how far away the Canadian is from returning, but he did explain one positive that has come from the raft of defensive injuries.
“It’s given me a chance to see some players,” Rodgers said.
“Like Liam Scales who I hadn’t seen a great deal of. So a chance to see him over the last four to five weeks.
“Tomo [Iwata] playing as well at right-back. He was obviously brought in here as a midfield player, has played at centre-half and has shown he can play at right-back as well.”
So that’s one way to look at it. Had Carter-Vickers and Johnston been fit throughout pre-season, Rodgers may not have got as good a look at Scales, Iwata, Stephen Welsh or even a youngster like Ben McPherson.
Celtic fans will hope that the defence is as strong as possible for the County game, ideally with our solid American at the heart of it.
In other news, the SFA have made changes to their VAR operations ahead of Celtic’s league opener this weekend
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