Celtic fans are patiently waiting to see new recruit Luis Palma in action for the club.
The winger, who joined on a five-year deal from Aris Thessaloniki in the final days of the summer window, has arrived with big expectations.
Palma made the matchday squad for Sunday’s derby win over Rangers. However, he wasn’t thrown into the action by Brendan Rodgers, quashing supporters’ hopes of a quickfire debut. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter.
The 23-year-old is now away playing with his country Honduras. They face Jamaica in the early hours of Saturday morning before hosting Grenada at a similarly early time on Wednesday. Both fixtures are competitive ones in the CONCACAF Nations League.
So Celtic supporters will be able to keep an eye on how Palma is faring. However, his second fixture arriving on Wednesday morning could dash hopes of a first start for us against Dundee.
We face Tony Docherty’s side on the following Saturday afternoon. With Palma in action early on Wednesday and then facing a 15-hour flight back to Scotland, you’d imagine that it may be a big ask for him to start the match.
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Of course, stranger things have happened. Daizen Maeda once made it back from Japan duty barely to feature in a match against Rangers barely 24 hours later. However, that was at a time of real necessity. With all due respect to Dundee, this won’t be.
With the likes of Liel Abada, Daizen Maeda and Hyunjun Yang all playing their international matches in Europe this time, and before Wednesday, Rodgers has plenty of other options to choose from.
It would still be marvelous to see Palma making his bow at Celtic Park. It just may not be from the start.
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