Jota is a major injury concern for Celtic supporters looking forward to tomorrow night’s Champions League showdown against RB Leipzig at a sold-out Celtic Park.
The Bundesliga side, who will have the backing of just 500 supporters, will face a wall of Celtic Noise from all corners of Celtic Park as the 59,500 home supporters do all that they can to roar the team onto what would be a vital win.
In a match where a draw is pretty much no use to either side it’s bound to be thrill-a-minute stuff as both sides go all out to get the three points.
The news today from Sky Sports that Jota missed training comes on the back of his mysterious half-time subsitution at McDiarmid Park on Saturday. Afterwards Ange Postecoglou played down any fitness concerns concerning his star wide-man saying it was just down to a bit of fatigue.
With Jota not training today it may well be that he’s being rested ahead of the RB Leipzig game but if it’s an injury or illness concern then it’s going to open the door for the likes of James Forrest or Sead Hakšabanović with both players impressing up at Perth at the weekend.
Hakšabanović played a more central though against St Johnstone alongside Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley as Ange Postecoglou road-tested his midfield three for the match against RB Leipzig.
If that’s correct then that would rule Hakšabanović out of the wide left position. With Daizen Maeda struggling for form, the manager could perhaps play Liel Abada on the right, move Kyogo to the left and play Giorgos Giakoumakis through the middle – remember this is a must win match.
Or the front three could end up being Abada, Kyogo and Forrest, assuming of course Jota is missing. The Celtic Star is attending today’s Media Conference at Celtic Park with the manager and a player so we’ll let you know as soon as we can!
Here’s Sky Sports confirming the news that Jota missed Celtic’s training session this morning.
☘️Jota missed Celtic training ahead of tomorrow night’s #UCL clash with RB Leipzig. pic.twitter.com/L8EI7FLqhU
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) October 10, 2022
My team would be
Hart
Juranovic CCV Jenz Bernabei
O’Riley Abildgaard Hatate
Haksabanovic Jota
Kyogo
Maybe not in that system exactly but feel we need those midfield & forward players to have a chance.
Bernabei in for Taylor as he can take on and beat players and RBL had Taylor sussed, and Jenz beside CCV as those two had a good partnership going until CCVs injury
Ange likes his wingers so will probably pick a system that includes them, but i feel we’ll do more damage playing directly through the middle of them