Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou will have to find away around a seismic hole in the heart of his Celtic midfield against St Johnstone on Saturday with Callum McGregor being ruled out indefinitely.
The Hoops skipper is suspended forthe trip to Perth but went off with a significant knee injury against RB Leipzig on Wednesday evening, it has since been debated who will come into deputise instead of him, such is the alienated feel of the situation.
There is some good news for the league leaders, however - Cameron Carter-Vickers and Aaron Mooy are back in training, with the former surely in contention to feature for the first time since the 1-1 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk in Warsaw, and Mooy adding to the list of potential McGregor replacements for the duration of his injury; even though they play similar roles, he will likely be used in rotation with two vital Champions League ties coming up.
But with David Turnbull also out of action with illness, it remains to be seen who will fill in. Postecoglou offered an insight as to who may be in the running to face Callum Davidson's men in his pre-match press conference on Friday. "There will be some natural changes obviously with Callum (McGregor) out but I'll wait and see how the boys are this morning," Postecoglou said on Friday.
"Cameron Carter-Vickers and Aaron Mooy had a session yesterday and they're due to join training this morning so I'll see how they go. Liel Abada is obviously available after midweek. David Turnbull will miss out. He's got some tonsillitis so we're hoping that by Tuesday that's cleared up, but we'll wait and see. I'll just see how the boys pulled up from the game but we'll make at least two or three changes because we know it's going to be a challenging game tomorrow.
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"We need to freshen up the team, we've got some guys who have been training well and we'll put them in the team to give them an opportunity."
Who is available for selection?
Goalkeepers
Joe Hart
Benjamin Siegrist
Scott Bain
Defenders
Greg Taylor
Moritz Jenz
Cameron Carter-Vickers
Alexandro Bernabei
Anthony Ralston
Stephen Welsh
Josip Juranovic
Midfielders
Reo Hatate
James McCarthy
Aaron Mooy
Matt O'Riley
Oliver Abildgaard
Forwards
Sead Haksabanovic
Liel Abada
James Forrest
Kyogo Furuhashi
Jota
Daizen Maeda
Giorgos Giakoumakis
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