Martin O’Neill has some big calls to make at the heart of defence.
Depending on where Celtic are at in August, when the first ball is kicked for the opening Premiership game of the season, O’Neill’s hand will be forced.
That’s because Liam Scales won’t be available for the opening two fixtures due to the fact that he has to serve a two-match suspension dating back to a 12th yellow card he picked up during Celtic’s penultimate game of the previous campaign – that win at Motherwell.
It leaves O’Neill with a selection headache, and this is where Maik Nawrocki might get a chance he has been craving.
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Maik Nawrocki should start Celtic’s opening two Premiership matches
With Scales unavailable for Celtic’s opening two Premiership clashes against Dundee and Kilmarnock, O’Neill is actually short on options.
Unless Nawrocki is sold and replaced before then, the Polish defender is likely to start, and rightfully so following his loan spell at Hannover 96 last term.
This is because Cameron Carter-Vickers is returning from a long-term injury, while Auston Trusty has just finished his campaign after reaching the last-16 of the World Cup with the USMNT.
Trusty’s World Cup campaign ended on July 7. Usually, players in this situation are given around three weeks off. If that’s the case with the American defender, then he clearly won’t be ready for those opening two matches.
That leaves Nawrocki fighting Dane Murray for a starting spot, and while Scales will be gutted to miss the opening two league matches, because he played 37 out of 38 last term, it’s perhaps a blessing in disguise for Nawrocki.
That’s how Scales took his chance…
Go back to the 2023/24 season: Brendan Rodgers’ return to Celtic!
Scales had just returned from a loan spell at Aberdeen. By all intents and purposes, and he has even stated this himself, he was expected to leave again, and this time probably for good.
But injuries at the time meant that he started the season, including away at Ibrox during a 1-0 win.
Since then, Celtic’s Irish-speaking defender hasn’t looked back, and perhaps, just perhaps, the same might happen with Nawrocki, because there is certainly a top, top player in there.
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