Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou will have to navigate a defensive injury crisis if he is to avoid a deja vu situation as Celtic welcome Motherwell to Parkhead.
Having missed Carl Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers in the 2-0 defeat at St Mirren two weeks ago, the Australian will once again have to rely on Stephen Welsh and Moritz Jenz if he is to overcome adversity against a mid-table Scottish Premiership outfit.
The visitors turn up to Parkhead having failed to win all three of their previous Premiership fixtures, scoring just once in a 2-1 away loss to Kilmarnock as their early season hot-streak begins to falter - but it's football after all and they're facing a Celtic side who themselves haven't won in three games in all competitions. A win for either side would get them back on the right track, it seems - as Postecoglou detailed in his pre-match press conference.
“That’s why we’ve got the squad we have, particularly with our schedule over the next month and a half,” Postecoglou explained. “We’re going to get niggles and some guys who are sore here and there.
“That’s why we’ve got the squad we have, to be able to cope with that. We’ve known it was going to be like that for a while so you just plan for it. In terms of training and how we built the squad and the way we’ve prepared for what’s 13 games in about 43 days.
“We’ve been planning for a while and the process is just to look at each game and see how people are from a physical and mental standpoint and make decisions as we go along.”
Provisional Celtic squad
Joe Hart
Greg Taylor
Moritz Jenž
Sead Haksabanovic
Liel Abada
Aaron Mooy
David Turnbull
James McCarthy
Jota
Yosuke Ideguchi
Alexandro Bernabei
Oliver Abildgaard
Scott Bain
Benjamin Siegrist
Matt O'Riley
Daizen Maeda
Reo Hatate
Callum McGregor
James Forrest
Anthony Ralston
Stephen Welsh
Josip Juranovic
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