Ange Postecoglou has already confirmed that long term Celtic absentee Christopher Jullien has been back training with the squad for the past month or so and is scheduled to return to the match day squad after this international break.
Jullien has been out with a knee injury sustained at the end of last year when he collided with a goalpost in a Scottish Premiership match with Dundee United at Celtic Park.
The Celtic manager has been clear that he cannot rush the French defender, a £7m signing from Toulouse, back too quickly so we can expect a gradual introduction over the next few games.
And the two more recent injuries to Australian international midfielder Tom Rogic picked up in the recent win at Easter Road and to Swedish international central defender Carl Starfelt – who picked up a similar injury to Rogic in the next game, the frustrating goalless draw at Celtic Park against Livingston, should also be cleared up in time for the squad gathering on Saturday 20 November at Hampden for the 5.15pm kick-off against St Johnstone in the League Cup semi-final.
So while Postecoglou and his medical staff can spent some time working on these players fitness issues over the next ten days the Celtic manager will also be keeping a. close eye on his players currently away on International duty and praying that they all return safe, sound and injury free.
Callum McGregor is likely to heavily feature in both Scotland games against Moldova and Denmark – a result in the former on Friday night takes the pressure off completely for the match against the win-away group winners on Monday night and that could allow David Turnbull to come off the Scotland bench and get some international game-time under his belt.
Elsewhere in Scotland’s Group both Nir Bitton and Liel Abada will be looking to be involved in Israel’s matches against Austria and the Faroe Islands and they need to win both games and hope that Scotland slip up. It’s a similar situation to Scotland as far as the Celts are concerned, the experienced Nir Bitton is likely to start against Austria while Ababa is more likely to see some action in the final match of the Group against Faroes Islands.
Incidentally an Austria win over Israel on home soil can get the job done for Scotland.
These four aren’t the only Celts away ion international duty at the moment. Kyogo Furuhashi is likely to feature for Japan in their World Cup qualifiers against away to Vietnam and Oman while Josip Juranovic is in the Croatia squad for their games against Malta and Russia.
Conor Hazard in in the Northern Ireland squad as usual – surely he’ll be looking for a move from Celtic in January as he seems to be quite far out of the picture and has international ambitions and first team football aspirations after making his breakthrough at Celtic last season.
Stephen Welsh and Adam Montgomery are in the Scotland Under-21 squad for their European Championship qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Belgium in Dundee, and Dane Murray faces a triple-header with the Under-19s, as they face Armenia, Gibraltar and Croatia.
And young Rocco Vata has also been called up to the Ireland U18s squad to play Sweden in Marbella.
Selfishly pleased that Ralston and Forrest not in Scotland squad
Hoops do not need either to be injured.
I believe Ralston if required could perform in a young S B role and allow Juranovic to play in his natural position with Scales at l b.
Interesting times ahead.
Hail Hail.
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