James Forrest won’t be part of the Celtic squad at St Johnstone today.
The winger hasn’t played since suffering an ankle injury in September that eventually required surgery.
Forrest returned to training during the week but despite the option of having nine substitutes today he won’t be in Neil Lennon’s squad at Perth.
The hoops boss told the The Sun:
James now has to do some straight line running. He’ll not make this weekend obviously but we’ll assess him for Aberdeen next week.
Lennon tried Jeremie Frimpong and Ryan Christie in the ‘Forrest role’ but neither was able to provide the volume of goals and assists that the Scotland winger contributes. Over recent weeks Celtic have played a 4-4-2 system without any obvious wingers with play channelled through the centre to Odsonne Edouard and Albian Ajeti.
With so much uncertainty around the club the return of a fully fit Forrest will provide some stability and a building block towards next season. Following the Aberdeen match on Wednesday Celtic are away to Ross County a week today.
