Alfredo Morelos has been called up for the Colombian squad to face World Cup qualifiers against Peru on January 28 and Argentina on February 1.
With Joe Aribo on international duty at AFCON Giovanni van Bronckhorst will be without two of his key players for matches against Livingston, Ross County and Celtic.
Three call ups are required before a club can request postponements as Ally McCoist did in 2013 ahead of a crunch clash against Forfar Athletic.
BREAKING! Alfredo Morelos OUT of Celtic vs Rangers derby as Colombia recall Ibrox talismanhttps://t.co/aTNRNpNHZQ pic.twitter.com/2pwP8Nsiua
— Daily Record Sport (@Record_Sport) January 19, 2022
Morelos hasn’t been involved in the Colombian international squad this season after getting just seven minutes of action during the summer at the Copa America.
His return leaves van Bronckhorst with a striking headache with Kemar Roofe out injured forcing Cedric Itten and Fashion Sakala into consideration.
Celtic are also impacted by international call ups, Tom Rogic is a cert to be away with Australia while Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda are in contention for places in the Japan squad for matches against China and Saudi Arabia.
Let’s see who will want to cancel the game now!! Wouldn’t put it past them.
They’ll be on the phone to every national team manager for every player they have, begging them to call up a third player so they can ask for a postponement. They know we’re going to gub them, their fear is palpable…and delicious!
I must confess I’m not a fan of Morelos, not the type of character I’d have in my team; he didn’t do very well in the big Glasgow games, goal-wise or temperamentally, either but the Huns would melt from the front down without him.
Has he calmed down now that he realises he’s on a good contract and there’s not much interest in him anyway ? Three weeks off, ten minutes on, not a bad life for a superstar.