Ange Postecoglou has revealed that Jta won’t be involved in tomorrow’s SPFL clash with Hearts at Tynecastle.
Against St Johnstone a fortnight ago the winger was substituted at half-time with fatigue given as the reason for the switch.
Jota missed the Champions League match against RB Leipzig three days later and appears to have no more than a 50-50 chance of being available to play against Shakhtar Donetsk this Tuesday.
Sky Sports News spoke to Postecoglou live at Lennoxtown after today’s training session.
? “I’m the least excited about VAR!”
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?? The challenge of visiting HeartsAnge Postecoglou looks ahead to the first televised game featuring VAR in the #cinchPrem as Celtic visit Hearts live on Sky ?? pic.twitter.com/XrMgeNECY8
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) October 21, 2022
Asked about the squad for tomorrow the Celtic boss said:
Pretty much the same as it has been the last two or three games. The guys closest are Jota and Turnbull coming back but with the team travelling well and being able to rotate there is no point rushing them back.
We’ve got some important games coming up so they should be available next week at some point. The rest of the squad came through Wednesday (at Motherwell) well so we’ll have quite a strong line up tomorrow.
Sky Sports: Jota, a chance for the Champions League game on Tuesday or is that maybe a touch to soon?
Yeah, a chance but again we don’t want to rush him back, we’ll gauge by how he is going. He is training, he’s away from the main group, we’ll integrate him into team training some point next week.
Against Motherwell in midweek Said Haksabanovic and Liel Abada took up the wide positions with the Israeli contributing two goals as Celtic moved into the semi-final draw where they were paired with Kilmarnock.
James Forrest and Daizen Maeda played and scored in the previous match at home to Hibs to demonstrate the depth of the Celtic squad but when fit Jota is a certainty for the starting XI.
Following the Shakhtar match Celtic are on the plastic pitch at Livingston which might not be the ideal surface for a return from injury- with Real Madrid in the Bernabeu the match after that.