Celtic fans look like having to endure a long week of speculation before their Scottish Cup semi-final team is announced.
Reo Hatate, Jota and Liel Abada will all miss today’s match against Motherwell with the focus swiftly moving on towards Hampden.
Ange Postecoglou isn’t one for delivering detailed medical bulletins, none of the injuries have been explained although from the Israeli national squad Abada seems to have picked up a hamstring injury during a training session last month.
From yesterday’s newspaper media conference the Daily Record reports Postecoglou saying:
They are close but we will wait for them to get more training in before putting them back in. They are all back training now and we will see how they go after the weekend.
It is now more than a month since Abada or Hatate played, starting either player at Hampden would be a calculated risk although a closed doors match could be arranged to test their fitness next week.
Every scrap of social media coverage will be investigated next week for fitness clues but even in his pre-match media duties Postecoglou is unlikely to give away any team news in advance of the official announcement on Sunday afternoon.
James Forrest was also mentioned in the report but has been out injured since getting a 10 minute run against Aberdeen on February 18.