With the Celtic team having been announced for today’s match against Raith Rovers at Celtic Park, one of the talking points will be French centre back Christopher Jullien failing to make the starting eleven once again.
Jullien missed over a year of football after suffering a severe knee injury in a collision with the goal post while sliding in to prevent a goal against Dundee United in December 2020. He has been back in training for a couple of months now but we are still yet to see the former Toulouse defender in action.
Many assumed today’s Scottish Cup tie against a Championship outfit would be the perfect opportunity to ease the player back in, especially with manager Ange Postecoglou having previously said he would use the match as an opportunity to rotate the squad and rest some of the players who have been playing more frequently.
With Christopher Jullien having not even made the bench in the past three games, his name has often been brought up in press conferences with the manager, who had this to say on the matter yesterday as shown on the Celtic YouTube channel:
“I get the level of anticipation with Chris because it’s a long-term injury and a significant player for this club and people are really keen. My assessment of those things is that with every player we look to give them an opportunity when we think the time is right, to give themselves the best chance to play.
“Chris has been training really well in terms of consistently being out there without any issues, which is important, that’s the first thing. The second thing is when does he get his opportunity?
“Look he’ll be involved in the squad, definitely, on Sunday. Whether he gets any game time that depends on how I think the starting eleven will look or, if he’s not in the starting eleven, what changes I can make during the game. He’s just got to keep doing what he’s doing. I don’t think anyone here hasn’t got their opportunity, he’ll get his opportunity and then it’ll be up to him.”
With these comments from the manager, maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising that Jullien has been omitted from the starting line up today, however I think most of us assumed if there was ever an opportunity to get him back into the first eleven, today would be the day. On the other hand it would be harsh on Stephen Welsh who has also had to bide his time recently even though he has always done well when handed opportunities this season.
It will be interesting to see if Jullien gets any game time today at Parkhead. If he does I imagine he will get a huge ovation from the crowd as he was so highly regarded amongst the fan base prior to his injury. If he doesn’t it will definitely raise a few eyebrows and will increase my own worries that we will see very little of the Frenchman during the rest of this season.
Conall McGinty
I can’t wait for the day you don’t put up clickbait or just pure negativity . Yeah the fact a guy who has been out for a year doesn’t start today is terrible ,it must signify unrest or then again it could be the club and ange wanting to break him back slowly like today he got half an hour .