Ange Postecoglou has explained the half-time substitution of Carl Starfelt for Yuki Kobayashi.
The hoops boss changed five outfield players from the midweek win over Hearts in the SPFL but Starfelt continued alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers in central defence.
That partnership has been together for almost every minute following the World Cup break but came to a halt as the teams emerged for the second half of yesterday’s Scottish Cup tie.
Speaking to The Sun about Starfelt, Postecoglou said:
Yeah he felt a niggle in his hip flexor during the warm-up actually. Kind of felt early on in the game but we got it through to half-time and we could see he wasn’t moving well in the first-half.
You could see he wasn’t his normal self so we made the change. I don’t think it’s anything significant but it was good to get Yuki some game time, you can see his quality for a young man and I thought he did well when he came on.
Celtic have a free week to prepare to face Hibs after coming through a testing period of three matches in seven days.
Starfelt has already been out injured for two spells this season, featuring in just one of Celtic’s Champions League with Moritz Jenz a regular in central defence.
Daizen Maeda missed yesterday’s match due to a knee injury picked up in midweek against Hearts but is expected to resume full training before the game against Hibs.