When it comes to Celtic’s injury concerns it has been a case of give with one hand and take away with the other in recent days.
As news emerged from Ange Postecoglou’s exclusive interview with Celtic TV, that captain Callum McGregor may be on the road to recovery far quicker than first thought, then came the more deflating news that his likely replacement Yosuke Ideguchi’s injury may take a little longer to recover from than initial expectations indicated.
New signing Guchi’s ankle injury occurred following a reckless tackle by Alloa’s Mouhamed Niang. It was a challenge that was both out of control – with both feet off the ground – and clearly endangered an opponent. In short it should have been a red card, and likely would have been in any country but this one.
Post-match Ange Postecoglou seemed confident the Japanese midfielder was sore but didn’t appear concerned the player would face any extensive period out the team, and when asked about the tackle initially deferred to refereeing responsibility to deal with the matter.
However, with the benefit of post-match television replays the manager has indicated Ideguchi will be out for longer than first feared and took an opportunity, at long last, to take a deserved swipe at the team of officials headed by Don Robertson who deemed the challenge a yellow card offence.
Ange of course was warned by The Celtic Star about Scottish referees on his first day at Celtic Park but until last night has decided to keep his thoughts on the standard of Scottish referees to himself, despite having had ample opportunities to pass comment as this season so far has unfolded and he’s got a better idea what that warning was all about.
“I think I said after the game it didn’t look too serious but to be fair I didn’t really get a good look at him. It was a terrible tackle and one that should have been addressed by the referee on the day. He hasn’t come out of it too well and he’ll be missing for a little bit as well. He is still pretty painful now.
“I knew it was significant. I was optimistic it wasn’t too bad but as everyone saw in the footage, the tackle should never have happened and it should have been addressed on the day.”
The manager is quite right on this one, the challenge on Callum McGregor could be viewed as accidental, although that too is also very much open to interpretation, however the tackle on Yosuke Ideguchi was a pre-mediated assault on Celtic’s new signing.
If the concerns of the manager are to be picked up by the Celtic boardroom, and the topic of Celtic’s players being endangered by officials who embolden such tackles by their own inaction week in week out remains to be seen – after all back-channel communications appear to be the way of Celtic rather than public denouncements. At least now however the manager is calling out dreadful officiating when he sees it and doing so publicly. The fact he rarely does so shows just what Ange Postecoglou thought of that particular challenge, either that or it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
What any public criticism of Don Robertson does not do however is make Yosuke Ideguchi’s return from injury come any soner, and now Celtic will head to Tynecastle at least without the Japanese midfielder, our captain and Tom Rogic who will be away on international duty.
As such it could well mean a quick return to the No6 role for Nir Bitton at Tynecastle and the possibility of a Tynecastle debut for Matt O’Riley.
Niall J
📺 @CelticTV Exclusive: Ange Postecoglou 💬 “Callum is better today. He wasn’t in great shape after the game but I’ve exchanged messages with him and he feels a bit better, which is great.”#cinchPrem | #CelticFC🍀| #HEACEL
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) January 25, 2022
Firstly,saw Bankrupt Barry on GO radio stating that he told his players to get in our faces and be aggressive but not hurt anyone,aye ok,you are culpable kid on skint guy.You knew exactly how your hammer throwers would act.Second,finally Ange speaks out about the officials.You have to call them out constantly.Although I can’t stand Slippy,one thing he got right was that as soon as he came in,he said that decisions had been going against them for years(obviously lying) but from then on multiple penalty awards and retrospective red cards for his team because the refs had been put on notice and feared missing out on the bigger games if the peepul weren’t satisfied with their performances.Big Jock would always call them out so Ange isn’t lowering himself by pointing out the bleeding obvious…