Postecoglou reveals concern after defender suffers injury setback

Ange Postecoglou has admitted that Carl Starfelt is an injury worry three weeks ahead of Celtic’s first competitive match of the season. 

The defender was injured on international duty at the start of June but appeared to have recovered when he was shown working out on a beach with the video shared on Instagram. 

Starfelt flew out with Celtic to Austria on Monday but all of the internationalists were spared from the tour opener against Wiener Viktoria on Wednesday. 

Saturday’s match against Rapid Vienna will see the big hitters return but three will be missing with Starfelt the biggest concern. 

Postecoglou told The Sun: 

We’ve got a couple of guys with niggles. Obviously Carl, and Josip, Liel trained well this morning. We had a hard session this morning, so he might have pulled up slightly. I haven’t spoken to him. But we’ve got nothing significant. 

Carl is the one who will probably miss a lot of this pre-season. But we’re pretty confident we’ll have him back for the start of the season. Everyone else should be fine for the bulk of this pre-season, hopefully. 

Stephen Welsh was next in line for a place in central defence last season but Chris Jullien, Osaze Urhoghide and Bosan Lawal all got playing time against Wiener Viktoria on Wednesday. 

After facing Rapi on Saturday Celtic play Banik Ostrava on Wednesday followed by home games against Blackburn Rovers and Norwich City either side of a trip to take on Legia Warsaw.