Ange Postecoglou will wait until next Saturday before deciding to request the postponement of SPFL Premiership fixtures.
With additional fixtures in the Asian World Cup qualifiers Celtic look like losing key players for matches on January 27 and February 1.
How many players they will be without is the big question. Tom Rogic and Kyogo Furuhashi seem nailed on for international duty but Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda could be called in by Japan for matches against China and Saudi Arabia.
SPFL rules allow clubs to request a postponement if three or more players are away on international duty.
Hajime Moriyasu will name his Japanese squad to face China and Saudi Arabia on January 22, that could then have a knock-on effect on Celtic’s games against Hearts (January 26), Dundee United (January 29) and the Glasgow derby on February 2.
Covering the issue, Postecoglou told the Daily Record:
It’s not a problem yet. I could spend hours thinking about what we’re going to do, strategise and having meetings about it – then in the end find out that only one player gets selected. So I’m not going to worry about it.
We’ll plan as we always have, that when we lose our players to international duty we’ll crack on and play the games we need to play. As it stands, none of the players have been selected yet. If that happens, we’ll look at it then.
Should Celtic ask for postponements if they are missing three internationalists?
Yes, we have to be at full strength
No, just get the games played
Rescheduling three matches could be a problem for the SPFL who start their post-split fixtures on April 23.
