Ronny Deila has revealed that Carlton Cole has suffered a knee injury.
The former West Ham striker signed an 18 month deal between the two transfer windows but hasn’t featured since a 25 minute substitute appearance at home to Hamilton last month.
Cole scored in Celtic’s 3-0 Scottish Cup win at Stranraer with Deila believing that the 32-year-old still has a role to play as the run-in to the title intensifies.
“He’s had some small issues with his knee, but he’s solved that so he can train more consistently as well,” Deila explained about Cole’s absence. “He’s improving and that’s positive but he still has a bit to go in my opinion.
“He is training, there is hard competition for him as well. Right now, he has not been featuring in our squad. We will see if he can get a new step and fight himself into the team.”
Last weekend it was claimed that Cole was wanted in China with Deila in the dark about a possible move.
“That’s news to me,” he responded. “It’s hard to say, all these things come into consideration all the time. He’s in our squad, he wants to play here and we want to get the best out of him.”
Leigh Griffiths scoring form and the arrival of Colin Kazim Richards have knocked Cole down the pecking order with the one time England striker starting just one match since joining Celtic.
With Deila showing little sign of switching away from his 4-2-3-1 formation it looks long odds against of Cole breaking into the Celtic side.
