Brendan Rodgers held his pre-match media conference at Lennoxtown this afternoon after his squad – minus Callum McGregor – trained ahead of Sunday lunchtime’s Glasgow Derby against theRangers at Celtic Park…
“These are games to really enjoy and go on to perform in,” Brendan Rodgers…
The Celtic captain spoke to the media ahead of his manager and confirmed that he missed training this morning as he worked with the physios on his troublesome calf issue which has hampered him over the past few matches.
However Calmac is planning to train with the group tomorrow and is looking like he’s going to make every effort to start. We’ll cover his media conference separately but first here’s what Brendan was asked by the media and everything that the Celtic manager had to say in response…
Q: Brendan, how’s the squad looking ahead of Sunday?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, all good. We’ve had a good week, so one more day to go. One or two we are just assessing. Callum, obviously he’s had a similar week to last week, and we’ll make a decision on him tomorrow. Obviously, James Forrest is back in the squad, which is really good. Paulo Bernardo is still a little bit away. Liam Scales, he’s obviously had an issue with his cheekbones, so we’re just waiting to finalise whether he needs an operation or not. So he will be doubtful for the game, but apart from that, it’s the same squad.”
Q: We were just speaking to Callum there, and he was talking about the fact that he’ll train with the squad tomorrow, see if there’s any reaction there, he’s willing to play through the pain barrier. Are these the types of games that you maybe do take more of a risk when it comes to players and whether they’re available or not?
Brendan Rodgers: “You always have to manage and weigh up the risk because of what’s left in your season as well. But listen, we’ve played without Callum this season before at various times and done very well. But of course, someone of his significance and someone who provides the tactical balance in our team, of course, I will wait until the very last moment to see if he’s ready. Like I said, it’s following the same sort of pattern as last week, and Callum came in, played 75 minutes and was brilliant last weekend. So we’ll see tomorrow.”
