Brendan Rodgers confirmed this afternoon that Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel will have to sit out tomorrow afternoon’s Scottish Cup fifth round tie against Raith Rovers with a back complaint This news means that Viljami Sinisalo will make his debut for Celtic…
That means that Viljami Sinisalo, Celtic’s £1m summer signing from Aston Villa will make his Celtic debut against Barry Robson’s Championship side.
The Celtic manager also reported that Schmeichel will be back on Wednesday night for the first leg of the UEFA Champions League play-off tie with Bayern Munich.
Schmeichel has been missing from training
Asked if he had any concerns for tomorrow’s match after the 6-0 win over Dundee in midweek, the Celtic manager broke the news about the injury concern surrounding Schmeichel who has been missing from training ahead of the last two matches that he has started, against Motherwell at Fir Park and Dundee at Celtic Park in midweek.
‘Kasper Schmeichel won’t play,’ Brendan Rodgers
“No, only one. Kasper Schmeichel won’t play. So Viljami Sinisalo will start and go. Kasper had a little issue with his back. So he’ll miss out in the game and like I’ve seen in pre-season with Viljami, he’s a young goalkeeper who came in and played those games really well and so I’m really looking forward to seeing him make his debut,” Brendan Rodgers said.
The Celtic then confirmed that Schmeichel will be okay for Wednesday night’s match against Bayern Munich in the Champions League play-off.
Brendan was asked if Viljami Sinisalo had been keeping himself fit!
The Celtic boss was then asked if Viljami Sinisalo had been keeping himself fit whilst sitting on the bench, a pretty silly sort of question but Rodgers let that go.
“Yes. He’s a great boy and that’s always a challenge, he’d come in here but he’s known that having been at Villa and then investing his time playing down in England with Exeter. He knew then coming into here he’s got a real top-class goalkeeper to learn from so sometimes you have to invest your time into learning.
Very talented young goalkeeper
We took him in, we’d seen him play, obviously represented Finland as well. Very, very talented young goalkeeper has come in, been patient, understands the role at this point so it’s really nice for him now to get the opportunity. So I’ve seen him a pre-season, I’ve seen him through the season since and yeah, I’ve got no doubts.
James Forrest update
Brendan was then asked for a progress report on James Forrest who played on despite picking up an injury through the extra-time in the League Cup Final win over theRangers back in December.
“He shouldn’t be too far away from getting out onto the pitches so yeah, but he’s obviously not good for the weekend,” Brendan said.
You can watch the manager’s media conference below…
