Brendan Rodgers made four changes to the Celtic side that faced RB Leipzig for today’s defeat at Hibs with all of the changes enforced.
Full-back’s Mikael Lustig and Kieran Tierney were left out with Tom Rogic joining Ryan Christie on the sidelines.
Celtic were rarely in contention during the match as they slumped to their third domestic defeat of the season, all of them away from home.
The hoops have got four more matches before the winter break with Rodgers hoping to get as many of his A-team fit and available as soon as possible.
Before kick off today Rodgers explained the injury situation to Radio Scotland: “Mikael picked up a knock and we’ll check on him for the midweek game, Kieran has had a hip issue which was feeling sore after the other night.
“Because the gap between games isn’t so big he would have struggled today and it’s good to have someone like Emilio to come in. Tom Rogic is injured.
Asked if Ryan Christie stood a chance of playing again this year the Celtic boss explained: “Yeah, hopefully. It’s not as bad as we first thought. When he had the scan after the game we had good news.
“He is now weight bearing, he can put his foot down so you never know, maybe next weekend but it was a sore one. At the time he had to come off because he couldn’t put his weight on it but hopefully he will be back sooner than we thought.”
Dedryck Boyata is also in the treatment room after sustaining a hamstring strain during the Betfred Cup Final win over Aberdeen on December 2.
Celtic are back in action on Wednesday night at home to Motherwell followed by another home match on Saturday against Dundee.
Those matches are followed by trips to Pittodrie and Ibrox.
