During yesterday’s frustrating 0-0 draw at Celtic Park against Livingston, who consequently seem to now be Ange Postecoglou’s bogey team having previously beaten us 1-0 at the start of the season, we also had the misfortune of losing Swedish defender Carl Starfelt to injury.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland [17:17] after yesterday’s game Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou said regarding the impending match against Fenencvaros and the injury to Starfelt “We’ll assess how the boys are. It’s a really important game in the context of the group and we’re looking forward to it.
“We’ll wait and see on Carl Starfelt. He felt something in his hamstring. He’ll get a scan tomorrow and we’ll see.
“With Carl coming off today and Tommy the other day, it’s the nature of football when you play so many games in a short space of time. You’re going to get some injuries and you’re going to need a big squad.”
With the Celtic manager previously stating that long term casualty Christopher Jullien wouldn’t be ready to return to action until at least after international break, our only real options to replace Starfelt at centre back are Stephen Welsh or Nir Bitton. Personally I would prefer Welsh to be handed the opportunity to impress as I think Bitton is much more effective in his natural defensive midfield position.
Speaking to the media before suffering his injury, as reported by Daily Record, Starfelt admitted he was surprised by how high the tempo was in Scottish football, as well as how physically challenging it is.
Starfelt said: “It’s physical here in Scotland and the tempo is very good. It’s high and different to anything I have experienced before.
“It’s fun to play football here, I’m enjoying it. Also the fans in Scotland are passionate in a way that I’ve not seen before.
“That’s what you want as a player. You want passion and emotion so you can be drawn into it.”
Photo: Malcolm Mackenzie
The Swedish international talked about how he believed he and centre back partner Cameron Carter-Vickers are growing as a pair as the team continues to improve.
He said: “The more me and Cam play together, the better we understand each other. We are now feeling positive vibes in the team and in the club. We need to keep building on it.
“We are going over to Hungary to try to win and, if we bring our best form, we have a very good chance of doing that.”
Unfortunately the pair wont be together in the heart of the defence on Thursday night against Ferencvaros in the Europa League due to the injury picked up by the Swede on Saturday which is really disappointing. It genuinely felt like Carl had started to settle after a shaky start to his Celtic career and his relationship with Carter-Vickers was blossoming well with Celtic having a good record of clean sheets recently.
Hopefully Starfelt gets good news after getting the injury scanned and will only be missing for a few weeks. The international break may actually prove beneficial to Celtic for once, giving extra time for both Starfelt and Rogic to recover from their injuries.
Conall McGinty
