Cameron Carter-Vickers and Daizen Maeda won’t be involved in Celtic’s Champions League match against Feyenoord on Wednesday night.
Both players were spotted training with the first team squad but Saturday’s match at home to Hearts in the SPFL Premiership is their targeted return date.
Maeda suffered a knee injury when he was sent off against Atletico Madrid at the start of November and hasn’t played since, Carter-Vickers was substituted at half-time in last week’s win over Hibs and missed the weekend defeat from Kilmarnock.
? BREAKING! Reo Hatate, Carter-Vickers and Daizen Maeda Celtic injury update as Brendan Rodgers confirms Feyenoord miss
? https://t.co/teAlrqCYyl pic.twitter.com/YaD4hGwXfr
— Football Scotland ????????? (@Football_Scot) December 12, 2023
The first issue raised at today’s media conference was about Maeda and Carter-Vickers.
Question: Where are they at in terns of their fitness and will they be involved tomorrow night?
Rodgers: They won’t be involved tomorrow but for the weekend they’ll hopefully be available.
With Carter-Vickers missing out against the Dutch champions it looks like Nat Phillips and Liam Scales will be together in central defence with Stephen Welsh and Gus Lagerbielke the other eligible options.
Without Maeda Celtic have tried a couple of combinations on the wings with Mikey Johnston, James Forrest and Yang Hyun-Jun available on the right with Luis Palma likely to start on the left wing.
Although Celtic are certain to finish bottom of their group a win over Feyenoord would provide 2.8m euros in prize money.
Rodgers was speaking with a heavy cold during the media conference.
? Cameron Carter-Vickers and Daizen Maeda are training with Celtic ahead of their #UCL match vs Feyenoord ? pic.twitter.com/oqZH8koqbf
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 12, 2023