Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou has provided a fairly positive injury update ahead of our 3pm kick off versus Motherwell tomorrow. The Australian joked that he “lit a few candles” every time one of his squad played for their country while away on international duty.
While he may have been joking, there’s no doubt that he would have been apprehensive regarding any of our players picking up a knock while representing their countries after a few players returned injured during the last break. Kyogo Furuhashi sustained a knee injury as Japan took on China, leaving Celtic without their main striker who had been in a rich vein of form previously.
However, on this occasion, all of his international stars have returned injury free and are ready to travel to Fir Park to hopefully notch us another win on the road after we took maximum points from our trip to Pittodrie just before the International break.
Mikey Johnston, who since his debut in May 2017 has had a horrendous time with injuries, is available once again. All Celtic fans will be hoping he can finally overcome these niggles he constantly seems to pick up. Johnston is always an extremely welcome addition to our squad, on his day he looks like a class act capable of terrorising defences and would make an able replacement for Jota when he needs rested.
At 22 years old, now would be the perfect time for Johnston to put his injuries behind him and get a proper run in the side as he seems perfectly suited to the type of football we play under Ange Postecoglou. As fans it’s always exciting when a homegrown talent breaks in to the first team and he has shown us that he definitely has the capabilities to stake a claim. Unfortunately with only 38 appearances in his 4 years he hasn’t been able to show that over a sustained period.
Two of our other long term absentees, James Forrest and Christopher Jullien, have returned to first team training handing another boost to the manager who hasn’t had a chance to have a good look at either player so far in his tenure. Jullien has been injured from last year after a nasty collision with a post while saving an almost certain goal and Forrest picked up an injury shortly after Ange took over meaning he hasn’t had much chance to integrate either into his new system.
The only slight negative injury wise is Josip Juranovic, who the manager revealed is not quite ready for a return yet, with the Croatian full-back remaining on the sidelines for now.
Watch Ange Postecoglou’s Mainstream Media Conference below…
Conall McGinty
