Celtic are hopeful Callum McGregor’ s facial injury may not be as bad as first feared.
Record Sport understands the Parkhead skipper believes the head knock he picked up during Saturday’s 2-1 Scottish Cup win over Alloa is less serious than boss Ange Postecoglou initially suspected immediately after the fourth-round clash.
And the Celtic manager dropped a cryptic hint his skipper may not be sidelined for up to two months after all.
But Postecoglou warned that Yosuke Ideguchi faces a spell out following the painful injury the Japanese midfielder also suffered in the win at Alloa.
McGregor suffered concussion after the collision with Adam King, meaning the Scotland star is unlikely to make tomorrow’s trip to face Hearts or Saturday’s visit from Dundee United.
And he will still be regarded as a major doubt for next week’s Old Firm derby. But Celtic’s medical team are optimistic McGregor will be back in action quicker than expected.
Postecoglou told the club’s in-house media platform yesterday: “I think he’s better today. He wasn’t in great shape straight after the game.
“There was obviously the injury and he had a slight concussion as well so he wasn’t in a great shape. But I exchanged messages with him yesterday and he feels a bit better which is great. Hopefully his recovery doesn’t take too long.
“You always fear the worst at the time. You could see he was trying to stay up because he’s as brave as they come.
“So for him to come off I knew it was something significant.”
Ideguchi was caught on the ankle by the studs of Mouhamed Niang as the Alloa midfielder followed through on a strong challenge.
Postecoglou admitted his January signing was “not great” and claimed ref Don Robertson should have delivered more serious punishment than a yellow card. He said: “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.”
