Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that defender Carl Starfelt will miss the bulk of pre-season because of a hamstring injury sustained on international duty with Sweden.
As we reported earlier this week, Starfelt had been absent from Monday morning’s training sessions at Lennoxtown but was on the flight to Austria with the rest of the squad for a pre-season camp.
However, it seems he’ll be missing for the next couple of friendly matches against Rapid Vienna tomorrow and Banik Ostrava next Wednesday at least, owing to the problem.
The good news is that Postecoglou is hopeful he will be back for the competitive action starting against Aberdeen on July 31st.
The Celtic manager also revealed that Josip Juranovic and Liel Abada are both nursing knocks, indicating they won’t be involved against Rapid Vienna either.
Postecoglou told The Herald: “We’ve got a couple of guys with niggles, obviously, Carl and Josip. Liel trained well on Wednesday morning. We had a hard session, so he might’ve pulled up slightly. I haven’t spoken to him. But we’ve got nothing significant.
“Carl’s the one who will probably miss a lot of this pre-season but we’re pretty confident we’ll have him back for the start of the season. Everyone else should be fine for the bulk of this pre-season, hopefully.”
The Bhoys boss has plenty to options to pick from in these positions for what are essentially consequence-free matches, but he’ll want all of his players to be available as quickly as possible.
Starfelt also missed most of last summer’s pre-season, so his injury isn’t ideal. This period isn’t just about fitness, it’s about working on the manager’s system and tactics.
Fortunately, it sounds like most of the Swede’s rehabilitation has taken place over June and he shouldn’t miss too much Celtic action.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou answers questions on Celtic futures of Jullien, Ajeti and Juranovic.
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