Ange Postecoglou has discussed his plans for the first ever mid-season World Cup Finals.
A hectic schedule of matches will see Celtic play 13 times between October 1 and November 12 before it comes to a shuddering halt before resuming away to Aberdeen on December 17.
The Celtic boss is currently in Australia drumming up interest in the Sydney Super Cup which involves matches against Sydney City and Everton on November 17 and 20.
With almost a month to spare Postecoglou will have a little time off in Australia before a training week in Portugal then full on into the biting Scottish winter.
Picking up on one of his Australian media interviews, the Daily Record reports Postecoglou saying:
It’s probably the only time I’ll have (after the Sydney Super Cup matches) within the next sort of period to get down to Melbourne and visit friends. I’ve got about another week off after those games. So, I’m gonna come down to Melbourne and just catch up with people and watch the games on the telly.
And then we head back, cause we’ll go back straight after that and go straight into camp in Portugal, and get ready for the second half of the year. With the World Cup being smack bang in the middle, it means the programme either side of it is super congested. Not just for us, for all football clubs. So, we’re gonna get ready to go again.
The exact extent of Celtic’s World Cup commitments is still to be decided but Josip Juranovic, Kyogo Furuhashi and Aaron Mooy seem certain to be involved.
Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Cameron Carter-Vickers still have a bit to do to book their places in Qatar, if they fail to make the cut they’ll have to settle for Australia and Portugal.