Van Bronckhorst rocked by "long-term" problem ahead of Celtic clash; could impact semi-final

By John McGinley

April 1, 2022

Giovanni van Bronckhorst has revealed that striker Alfredo Morelos isn’t only out of the upcoming Celtic clash, but could be missing for a significant chunk of time.

In fact, it sounds doubtful he will feature in the upcoming Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden, never mind Sunday.

In a press conference today, van Bronckhorst said: “We will know in the coming days because he will be assessed longer but I think it will be a long-term injury. We don’t know how long yet but hopefully we can give you more news after the weekend. He’s out for sure.

“He had an injury while on duty with Colombia, a muscle injury. Unfortunately for him, for all of us, he won’t be available on Sunday.

“We don’t know yet if he is out for the season but we won’t have him back in the next couple of weeks that’s for sure.”

Morelos has hardly been a prolific goalscorer against the Bhoys but he’s still their best attacking player and his absence is a significant blow for them at a critical stage of the season.

With 19 goals he’s their top scorer this term and that’s a lot of firepower to be missing heading into crucial matches.

Kemar Roofe was largely ineffective against Celtic in the last derby. Carl Starfelt and especially Cameron Carter-Vickers kept him very quiet and can hopefully do so again this weekend.

Morelos’ absence doesn’t guarantee a good result. Far from it. Only a spot on Celtic performance will give us a chance of victory. However, I don’t think we should pretend this isn’t a real problem for them.

The more problems for them the better, in my view.

In other news, Celtic release first glimpses of Kyogo Furuhashi back in training.