Cameron Carter-Vickers is in line for a place in the Celtic squad for tonight’s Champions League tie against Lazio.
The defender missed most of Celtic’s pre-season preparations but was in place for the SPFL opener at home to Ross County where he was paired with Maik Nawrocki.
That partnership only lasted 45 minutes away to Aberdeen with the former Spurs defender picking up a hamstring injury, being quickly followed into the treatment room by Nawrocki and Stephen Welsh.
Brendan Rodgers has been reluctant to put a timeline on any one returning from injury but after a week of training it looks like his first pick central defender is in contention for a return to action.
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Cam, we wouldn’t take a risk unless he was fit. He has come through really, really well. He is further down the road than we thought. He has had a real good week of training and he’s been doing lots of other work out on the field before that. I said before that it (his return) might have been after the international break but he’s made great progress.
So we will just assess that to see if he can be in for the squad for tomorrow and if he is, then obviously it would be great news for us.
Nat Phillips played 30 minutes at Motherwell alongside Liam Scales with the on loan Liverpool defender probably slightly ahead of Carter-Vickers for a starting place.
With neither option likely to be able to play a full 90 minutes they could both be involved against Lazio and Kilmarnock, after the international break Celtic return to a very demanding schedule of Hearts, Atletico Madrid and Hibs over seven days.