Ange Postecoglou has named his starting Celtic team to face Motherwell at Parkhead.
The Hoops boss confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Jota, Liel Abada, Reo Hatate and James Forrest would miss this final Premiership match before the league split due to not getting a full week of training under their belts. The quartet now face a race against the clock to prove their fitness with a massive Scottish Cup semi-final showdown with Rangers next week. Victory for the league leaders would make them heavy favourites to complete a domestic Treble with Falkirk or Inverness the opponents in the final.
But before focus turns to that huge encounter at the national stadium, Celtic will want to maintain their relentless Premiership form that has produced 30 wins and just one loss and draw. They've smashed through the 100-goal barrier already with six games to play and are well on course to do the same thing in the points total bracket.
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Speaking ahead of this one, the Celtic boss said: "We’ve been really good at just focusing on the next challenge because all of that becomes irrelevant if we don’t win tomorrow.
"You can look beyond tomorrow and say if we do this or that, but unless we win then it all dissipates. Our motivation is to play our best football tomorrow, get another win - especially in front of our supporters - score some goals and get closer to our overall target which is to win the title again.
"Since the World Cup, our form and football have been really strong and it’s been better than the first-half of the year where I thought we were still really excellent.
"The key for us is to finish the season strong irrespective of what we’ve done so far. We’ve got six games in the league plus a cup semi-final and if we can finish with our best form now then it will put us in a good place.”
CELTIC XI: Hart, Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Starfelt, Taylor, McGregor, Iwata, O'Riley, Haksabanovic, Maeda, Kyogo.
Subs: Bain, Mooy, Turnbull, Kobayashi, Oh, Bernabei, Summers, Ralston, Vata.
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