CAMERON CARTER-VICKERS faces a race against time to be fit for Celtic’s Champions League tie against RB Leipzig on Wednesday night, with Ange Postecoglou assessing his star defender on a day-to-day basis.
The American missed Celtic’s defeat to St Mirren before the international break and subsequently withdrew from the USA squad for their World Cup warm-up matches against Japan and Saudi Arabia after ‘pulling up a bit sore’ in training, according to Postecoglou.
Carter-Vickers and his central defensive partner Carl Starfelt will definitely be absent for Celtic’s home match against Motherwell this afternoon, and the Swede has no chance of making the trip to Germany. The Celtic manager is hoping though that Carter-Vickers will be fit for the game in Leipzig.
“Carl, definitely not, he will still probably be a couple of weeks away,” Postecoglou said.
“Cameron though is a kind of day-to-day proposition, it’s certainly not something that will keep him out long term or even medium term.
“At the moment, he is doing individual training, so we’ll see how he is after the weekend and then make our decision.”
There were injury fears over a number of Celtic players over the international break, but to Postecoglou’s relief, most of those proved to be unfounded.
“There’s been nothing too bad from the internationals really, (Giorgos) Giakoumakis is the only one who has pulled up a bit sore.
“He will miss the Motherwell game, but I’m confident after that he shouldn’t be too far away.
“In terms of everyone else, they have all come back in good condition, they’ve trained well today and they are ready to go.”
Moritz Jenz is likely to partner Stephen Welsh at the heart of the Celtic defence for today’s game with Oliver Abildgaard providing emergency cover, but Postecoglou is reluctant to pitch the new signing into an unfamiliar position.
“He can play there and he has played there in the past,” he said.
“With him it’s obviously about introducing him to the team, and I think it would be unfair if we put him into a position that is not his primary position as his introduction to the team.
“But he has trained well the last couple of weeks, he’s got his fitness levels up, and he should see some game time in the next couple of games.
“As he gets stronger within himself and feels better then he will definitely be an option.”
