The absentees from Celtic training at Lennoxtown

Kieran Tierney, Kasper Hogh and Landon Emenalo were all posted missing from Celtic training this morning.

There were a few new faces pictured for pre-match training ahead of the game against St Mirren but it is the players missing that are of most interest.

Tierney and Hogh missed the midweek win over Aberdeen with Shaun Maloney hopeful that both would be in contention for Saturday’s match.

That seems unlikely with both players not involved in training.

CELTIC AND THE LEFT BACK PROBLEM POSITION

New signing Emenalo was also missing, Martin O’Neill confirmed on arrival that the teenage Chelsea defender was a few weeks away from playing.

That leaves Liam Scales almost certain to play at left-back although new signing Jordan Lotomba could also be an option.

Camilo Duran is a more than adequate back up for Hogh but left-back is a recurring problem for Celtic.

On the plus side Jota was prominent in the training ground pictures from SNS.

It isn’t known if he is back involved with contact training but he has been out the gym and training on grass for a month.

Jota was left out of Celtic’s Europa League squad but if he is back involved domestically next month most fans will be pleased.

The winger missed the whole of last season through injury with little in the way of updates about his rehab.

Naturally he won’t be thrown in at the deep end but hopefully he can be involved in some closed door matches over the next month as his rehab is completed.

Martin O’Neill is expected to host a pre-match media conference ahead of a run of three away matches.

Celtic have yet to comment on their allocation of 300 tickets for the League Cup match at Ibrox on September 13.

Interestingly the Ibrox Tribute Act have still to release tickets to their own fans.

After the bravado of announcing Celtic’s reduced Ibrox allocation they’ve possibly realised that Celtic can return the favour a week later in the SPFL match.

Backing down or surrendering more tickets to Celtic won’t earn Andy Cavenagh and his fellow investors many staunch points.