Ange Postecoglou will consider all three options open to him over the next few days before deciding who will play at right-back for Celtic on Wednesday night at Easter Road.
Celtic are back in training today after a day off on Christmas Day and the squad will be joined by World Cup bronze medalist Josip Juranovic who returns to training after his post-Qatar week off. Ange Postecoglou will be keen to assess his fitness after picking up a calf knock that kept him out of Croatia’s third place play-off win over Morocco.
“It’s Monday we’ll get him back in. Josip’s had a slight injury, so we’ll see how he is. It’s unlikely he’ll be available for Hibs, but we’ll see,” Ange Postecoglou stated, as reported by Scottish Sun. “Until we set eyes on him, we’ll see what condition he’s in. We won’t throw him back in unless he’s absolutely ready to go.”
With Juranovic more likely to be included in the manager’s plans for the trip to Ibrox on 2 January 2023, the Celtic boss will have to look elsewhere for his midweek right back selection for the game against Hibs. That’s going to come down to choosing between Anthony Ralston, who picked up an ankle knock against Livingston last midweek, which kept him out at the weekend in the 4-1 win over St Johnstone or alternatively to stick with makeshift right-back Reo Hatate who not only picked up the Man-of-the-Match awards against the Perthshire Saints but also scored a brace with only the post denying him a hat-trick.
“We’ll see with Ralston. He improved on Friday and reports are he improved on Saturday. There’s two days before the Hibs game, so we’ll give him every chance. We know what Tony’s like, he’ll give himself every chance,” the Celtic manager stated.
If Ralston doesn’t make it then Postecoglou will have no worries about asking Hatate to go again at right-back. “Reo was great. He handled it well. I spoke to him about it on Friday and he was all-in. I remember watching him play left-back earlier in his career in Japan. But he’s not a full-back, he’s a midfielder.
“With the way the game was going to go he’d give us a hell of a lot going forward with his passing and creativity,” Ange said.
New signing Ally Johnston isn’t available for the game against Hibs as his registration as a Celtic player awaits the opening of the transfer window on 1 January, so in theory he could be an option for a debut at Ibrox.