After an injury to Callum McGregor ruled him out of the Celtic trip to Hearts last week, two further players have dropped out of contention for the visit of Livingston on Sunday.
Celtic lost their appeal of Hyunjun Yang’s red card at Tynecastle meaning he will miss tomorrow afternoon’s Scottish Cup clash and the upcoming fixture against St Johnstone.
Brendan Rodgers also confirmed in a media conference on Friday that Luis Palma is a doubt for the visit of David Martindale’s team after picking up a knock.
Meanwhile, McGregor and Reo Hatate remain sidelined until after the upcoming international break.
Talented Celtic youngsters could feature vs Livingston
It all means that space has opened up in the Celtic match squad and two youngsters could benefit ahead of others.
After 18 minutes off the bench in the last round against Buckie Thistle, an impressive second-half showing at home to Dundee and 11 minutes against Hearts, midfielder Daniel Kelly may even make his first senior start for the Bhoys.
Tomoki Iwata and Matt O’Riley are expected to feature centrally against Livingston. However, that third spot is up for grabs and Paulo Bernardo didn’t exactly do much to cement himself as a starting pick last week.
Kelly has been heavily praised by Rodgers of late and this could be a good match to test him out, without three points on the line in a tense title race.
Elsewhere, Rocco Vata could get substantial minutes in the winger position, especially as a second-half substitute.
The smart money would be on Nicolas Kuhn and Daizen Maeda featuring as Celtic’s wide attacking starters against Livingston – or perhaps even Kyogo Furuhashi.
However, relief will likely be needed after the interval, or perhaps even an injection of fresh ideas if the scoreline is tight heading into the final half hour.
We know Vata can provide that and there’s a chance he could get his lengthiest outing of the season so far following a cameo against Aberdeen and 26 minutes in the 4th Round of this tournament.
Neither player were included in the Celtic B squad for their Saturday match and both are training full-time with the senior side, so they will be named in the matchday group at the very least.
It’d be fantastic to see them get a big opportunity if Rodgers deems the environment right for them to be tested.
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