Ange Postecoglou admits his Celtic squad is creaking under the strain of a fixture pile-up after star winger Jota became the latest player to limp into the treatment room.
Jota missed training at Lennoxtown on Monday with a ‘muscle strain’ and ‘fatigue’, ahead of the Champions League showdown with RB Leipzig. And Postecoglou admits he’s bracing himself for more casualties as his side faces a hectic schedule as the clock ticks down to the World Cup Finals next month.
Asked if the workload has become too heavy for his side the Aussie said: “It is. We have 13 games in 44 days and you look at the level of games you have got to play. We played Wednesday night in Leipzig, we got home on Thursday at 3am and we played at lunchtime on Saturday. The players had just recovered from that trip and they are playing again tomorrow night and then on Sunday night.
"It is too much of a burden. Usually you will have some midweek games, but they are always broken up. I guess it is just the nature of the season this year – we are jamming a lot of games into a short space of time because of the World Cup.”
And Postecoglou agreed with Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp who insisted, ahead of last week’s visit from Rangers, that fewer matches would be better for the game in general.
The Celtic manager said: “I think so, if you want top level performances. As in any other profession, the people who are the most important - the players - have to be able to recover if you want to maintain performances.
“It is just the way it is. I think we have got 13 games in 44 days. It is impossible for us, or any other club for that matter, to maintain a level of performance with that sort of workload. We try to manage that through having a squad and rotating the team which I think is important and just making sure our players are well looked after.”
With skipper Callum McGregor unlikely to return to action before the domestic game shuts down for Qatar 2022, Postecoglou is also now fretting over Jota’s condition. And he says the Portuguese star will not be risked unless he is passed fully fit to play.
Postecoglou said: “I was touch and go whether we started him on the weekend. We felt like we could get half a game or 60 minutes out of him at the weekend.
“He was kind of our main threat down the left hand side there and had a good game.
“I think we are going to have a few of these issues going forward and are going to have to juggle the squad. Especially the front players because they are the ones who have to rely on their speed and their aggression.
“That can’t be maintained game after game so we are going to have to juggle them. We would never put a player at risk. I don’t think there is any point. Unless he is 100 per cent he won’t play.”
Celtic’s squad should be beefed up by the return of both David Turnbull and Moritz Jenz, who were left out of Saturday’s travelling party to St Johnstone.
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