James McCarthy won’t be available for Celtic’s two pre-World Cup fixtures in the main news from Ange Postecoglou’s media conference ahead of tomorrow’s match at Motherwell.
The midfielder hasn’t started any matches this season with just five appearances from the bench to his name.
With Ange Postecoglou’s squad being decimated by international calls for the two match trip to Australia the former Hamilton midfielder could have got some playing time in Sydney but will now miss that opportunity.
The Express reports:
And while the Hoops gaffer has a strong squad heading in to the tournament, a fresh injury setback has been suffered by veteran James McCarthy. Postecoglou confirmed the Irishman is out with a ‘significant’ hamstring injury that means he won’t feature in the next two clashes.
The arrivals of Aaron Mooy and Oliver Abildgaard have pushed McCarthy and Yosuke Ideguchi further down the pecking order despite Celtic’s heavy programme of fixtures.
Despite that schedule the Celtic squad is in relatively healthy shape with Callum McGregor the only regular currently unavailable.
Over the last week Jota and Carl Starfelt have returned from injury with the hoops looking for two more wins to go into the World Cup break with at least a seven point lead and significant goal difference advantage.
