McGowan left red faced over big Celtic claim

Martin O’Neill has shot down a claim from Stephen McGowan that Julian Araujo won’t be back at Celtic.

The defender hasn’t played since Celtic’s dramatic Scottish Cup win at Ibrox on March 8.

There was no obvious sign of an injury during that match but Araujo was missing from the Celtic side that beat Motherwell six days later.

At that stage there didn’t appear to any real concern over the on-loan defender.

Things changed when Ryan Christie revealed that Araujo was back at Bournemouth receiving treatment.

After Celtic lost 2-0 to Dundee United Martin O’Neill was vague about the injury and return prospects.

Running in tandem social media was awash with rumours.

The most far fetched suggested that Araujo and Tomas Cvancara had been disciplined because of their post Ibrox celebrations.

MCGOWAN- MAN IN THE KNOW?

Last Sunday, a week after the Dundee United match there was a fresh twist to the tale.

The normally reliable McGowan broke the international boredom with an update on the Mexican mystery.

? Julian Araujo has been ruled out for seven to eight weeks with a quad strain.

It remains to be seen whether Bournemouth will sanction the right-back’s return to Celtic before the end of the season.

Exclusive from @mcgowan_stephen.

? https://t.co/0OpARDCk9f pic.twitter.com/vUeTNUUhYK

— The Celtic Way (@celticway1888) March 29, 2026

Over the last 20 years McGowan has been the most reliable source of Celtic news.

While the text in his story left the door open for a late return for Araujo the initial impact was that the season could be over.

Injury news and updates have been central to O’Neill’s media conferences.

After the interim manager had touched over injury issues he was asked a follow up on Araujo. Specifically asking if he would be back at Celtic.

It’s a thigh injury. Oh, of course. Yeah, I do. I think he’s doing fine in recovery now.

So, the physios are obviously keeping in touch with the Bournemouth physios. We expect to see him back, hopefully, in the not-too-distant future.

Time will tell whether McGowan’s claim is correct or not.

After a long stint at the Daily Mail McGowan seems to be out of the daily news cycle, providing exclusive newsy content to the Newsquest.

Jonny McFarlane is in charge of the Herald, Glasgow Times and The Celtic Way. Having McGowan with breaking news will clearly generate traffic- providing it is accurate.