Cameron Carter-Vickers spoke to the media today ahead of Celtic’s visit to Pittodrie on Sunday to take on Barry Robson’s improving Aberdeen team in the second round of matches in the new season’s Scottish Premiership. The Celtic defender played the full ninety minutes last week in the 4-2 win over Ross County, in his first match since the Scottish Cup semi-final win over theRangers at Hampden at the end of April.
For the American international though, the sooner he was back the better and playing the entire match last week was idea for him as he looks to build up his match fitness through playing games for Celtic.
“That’s how I want to do it,” he said ahead of Sunday’s trip to Aberdeen. “The best way to get fitness is to play games, so it’s perfect for me. I feel good, even though I didn’t train with the team until about 10 days ago, I was running on my own for a while. So physically I feel good and I’m ready to play.”
Explaining the timeline on his troublesome knee injury and the plan to manage it until the appropriate time in the season before going under the knife, Cameron Carter-Vickers gave a detailed insight into the injury situation he faced for much of last season, starting by explaining when the problem emerged.
“It was quite a while,” the Celtic defender said. “Long before Christmas I initially did it. The pain wasn’t bad consistently, there were lows and highs, but it was definitely something I needed to get sorted and now that it is I am in a good spot.
“My understanding of the injury was, the likelihood was it was never going to get worse in terms of the actual damage in the knee. So it wasn’t too much of a risk. It was just mainly pain management. Some weeks I maybe wouldn’t train at the start of the week, I would just come in towards the end of the week to be ready for the game.
“It was about managing the pain and trying to play 90 minutes at the weekend really.
“I wanted to go as far as I could with it. I wanted to be there to help the team if I could and I still felt I could contribute in a positive way. I knew I needed it done but my view was that I would be guided by the management and the physios as to when it should happen.
“They thought that when I did get it done would be the best time, when we had most things wrapped up from last season and also to be ready for the beginning of this season.”
That meant of course that after the Scottish Cup semi-final victory over theRangers at the end of April, which set up a Scottish Cup final against Inverness Caley Thistle, time was called on CCV’s season and he was sent away to get his operation
.“I knew that was going to be my last game before I played it,” he said, looking back on that 1-0 win over Michael Beale’s side. “Not much changed for me mentally, I went out there and tried to perform and help the team. But it was a bit of a weird feeling for me after the game.
“I enjoyed the cup final to be honest. I was there in my suit watching the game and we won. I’m not a real over-thinker. When I’m fit I will play the best I can and when I’m not I can’t do much about it so I just get on with it.”
