It is fair to say that Celtic have had their problems in central defence this season.
Chris Jullien has still to kick a ball in anger after undergoing knee surgery at the start of the year while Kris Ajer sat out pre-season matches waiting on his move to Brentford to be completed.
Carl Starfelt spent a fortnight in quarantine before being pitched into his debut away to Hearts at the end of July after Stephen Welsh and Dane Murray had been thrown together away to Midtjylland.
Cameron Carter-Vickers arrived in the final hours of the summer transfer window to form a partnership with Starfelt until the Swede suffered a hamstring knock at the end of October.
In his third game back in favour Welsh suffered a sickening head knock at Hampden on Saturday when he was on the wrong end of Shaun Rooney’s elbow. After a few minutes of treatment on the pitch Welsh looked groggy as he made his way off injured.
It could have created another headache for tonight’s match against Bayer Leverkusen but yesterday Ange Postecoglou had good news for the Daily Record about his young defender:
Welshy has trained OK. He got a decent whack on his cheekbone but he’s all good.
Alongside Carter-Vickers the 21-year-old will face a tough test tonight but that pairing stood up well to the threat from Ferencvaros in Matchday 5.
Celtic have only recorded one clean sheet so far in the Europa League group stage, one more will ensure that there is something very live to play for in a fortnight when Real Betis visit Celtic Park.
Tom Rogic, Starfelt and Giorgos Giakoumakis miss tonight’s match through injury.
