The last thing that Brendan Rodgers wants to hear about is an injury doubt over Luis Palma.
On Friday night the Celtic winger continued his impressive form as he helped Honduras to a 2-0 win over Mexico in a two-legged Nations League play-off.
The two nations meet again on Tuesday night in the Mexican capital but Honduran coach Reinaldo Rueda has a couple of injury concerns going into the match.
Honduran website Diez reports Ruenda saying:
Players in doubt: “Luis Vega has a discomfort in his shoulder, and a small discomfort that Luis Palma has in a duel he had with Sánchez, we have those situations, today we will have our first training session. Yesterday recovery work was done, all joint mobility was stimulated and there we will see the evolution of the entire group.”
It could just be mind games ahead of Tuesday’s match which seems to have some needle carried over from Friday’s first leg in Honduras.
If he plays, Palma will spend Wednesday flying from Mexico to London then onto Glasgow before reporting to Lennoxtown ahead of Saturday’s match against Motherwell.
With Liel Abada and Daizen Maeda out injured Rodgers will be relying heavily on Palma over the coming weeks in terms of goals and assists.
The Honduran winger is suspended from next week’s Champions League tie away to Lazio before Celtic embark on their packed December fixture card.
Hopefully this is just a minor injury that keeps him out if the return against Mexico – and safe from further injury – but sees him return fresh and ready to play in the Hoops.
I utterly HATE international football… Another potential critical injury from it and at such a critical time of the season too…
Oh and Cheers ‘Celtic man’ Steve Clarke –
Another almost full (89’ minutes) for Celtic Capt. Cal-Mac in a dead rubber double header for Scotland while Ryan Jack of Sevco is protected to the core warming the bench…
Stevie’s great ‘man magement’ or orders from above ?
Ma opinion – Enjoy the trappings of your brown envelope Mr Clarke !