No Callum McGregor. No Jota. No Carl Starfelt. No problem. No team was going to get through this current period between the September international games and the World Cup without having injury issues. Celtic have had theirs to key men. Skipper McGregor being the biggest of the losses to some important squad members.
But Ange Postecoglou has managed to perform a terrific juggling act. And, if he can keep the balls in the air for just one more 90 minutes against Ross County it’ll have been some feat. When Celtic lost to St Mirren just prior to that break in the club programme to have a first Premiership loss in a year inflicted upon them, I wondered if the amount of changes that Postecoglou had made to his team was the main issue for the loss in Paisley.
Every team is due a bad day. There was no recrimination in losing, but the display was flat and disjointed and it was reasonable to feel the volume of alterations had been a cause. Postecoglou knew that this current gruelling programme was next on his list and he would have had plans already in place to mix and match during it to keep everyone fresh.
