Neil Lennon has a few big team selections to make for Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen with many of them assessing the fitness of players who have returned from injury over the last couple of weeks.
Tom Rogic, Ryan Christie and Olivier Ntcham are all competing for midfield places alongside Callum McGregor and Scott Brown while the fitness of Filip Benkovic will be carefully assessed before the defence is finalised.
Further forward there is a big call to be made over Scott Sinclair.
In most circumstances anyone that has scored 11 goals between Christmas and Easter would be a first pick but over the last three matches the former Aston Villa man has started on the bench. In the Glasgow derby he came on at half-time but wasn’t called upon against St Mirren or Inverness Caley Thistle.
Adding an additional element to the decision is his scoring record against Aberdeen, Sinclair has netted four of the six goals that Celtic have netted against the Dons this season despite seeing a penalty saved in the Betfred Cup Final.
News recently emerged that the fourth year on Sinclair’s contract was an option held by the club which has yet to be exercised. It would be naive to imagine that that hasn’t been a factor in his recent exile.
Whether he is retained or returns south in the summer it’s hard to imagine Sinclair sitting out the action at Hampden on Sunday, if he plays who’d bet against him playing a big part in getting Celtic through to next month’s Scottish Cup Final.
