Brendan Rodgers hasn’t ruled Liel Abada and Reo Hatate out of contention for Saturday’s Glasgow Derby.
The Celtic boss has been giving encouraging updates about both players over the last 10 days but neither made it onto the bench in Tuesday’s 3-0 win away to Dundee.
Abada last played in September when Celtic won at Ibrox with Hatate pulling out of the Champions League match against Atletico Madrid after seven minutes with a serious hamstring pull.
If Rodgers was to pick his first choice Celtic XI both players would walk straight into the side but that luxury has never been available to the former Leicester City boss.
After the team was announced yesterday most Celtic fans were writing Hatate and Abada out of Saturday’s squad but speaking to the Daily Mail Rodgers said:
They could be around it. It’s one thing being ready to start, of course.
Liel looked really good on the field when he trained with the group last night. We kept him at home to do another session to build him up. We’ve missed his running, his goals. He’ll be brilliant for us for the second part of the season.
Reo is at a good level but not a level to start. We’ll see how he goes over these next few days. He’s training hard, working well and it will be like having two new players when we get those two back.
A further update is expected at Friday’s media conference but it won’t be until 11.15am on Saturday when the teams are announced that the situation is finally answered.
Am I alone in thinking his use of the phrase “it will be like having two new players” could be rather ominous for our January transfer dealing business, or being excessively cynical?
Editor: History would suggest that Rodgers knew the exact message he was sending out.
That’s my fear too. However, short-term, it would be great to see them back
when he was asked two weeks ago, he said he would be working with the players he has.