Callum McGregor is on target to make his return to action at Aberdeen on December 17.
The midfielder hasn’t played since suffering a knee injury away to RB Leipzig on October 5 but took part in a public training session in Sydney earlier this week.
Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley have taken on added responsibility since McGregor was ruled out with both players starting 13 consecutive matches as the hoops established a nine point gap in the Premiership ahead of the World Cup break.
The return of the club captain will be a massive boost to Celtic when the season resumes with Ange Postecoglou determined not to take any short cuts over the next couple of weeks.
Ahead of the friendly against Sydney FC, the Celtic boss told The Sun:
If I said to him to go out for a run tomorrow, he’d be right out there. We’re keeping a firm hold on him, but he’s flying.
The plan is he’ll train this week and keep working over the week off and when we get to Portugal he’ll be fine to go again. Are we looking at the first game back? Absolutely.
In Portugal Celtic will face Stade Rennais on December 9 which looks like the ideal match to give McGregor some game time.
Although his injury came at a very difficult time due to Champions League fixtures after his marathon campaigns of recent years a two and a half month playing break might do McGregor a favour in the medium term.
