Celtic trio Kyogo Furuhashi, James Forrest and Mikey Johnston face a race against time to prove their fitness for today’s League Cup final against Hibernian at Hampden Park.
The trio all missed the Hoops’ 2-1 victory over Ross County on Wednesday night and have a deadline to recover from their respective setbacks in order to be available for the final.
However, the latter was reportedly in training on Friday, according to the Daily Record, and should therefore be in contention to play. However, Ange Postecoglu will be sweating over whether or not he’ll have two key players in Furuhashi and Forrest available.
Speaking about his injured players on Friday, the Celtic boss teasingly explained: “I’m not ruling anyone out, but I’m not ruling anyone in at the moment.
“From my perspective, if anyone is going to be available, they will have to train tomorrow [Saturday]. So the medical team will give me a briefing in the morning and we’ll go from there.
“The players are working hard to try to be available but, ultimately, it will come down to a decision of whether they are fit enough to contribute or not.”
While Postecoglou’s update is still laced with caution, his statement that he will not rule any of the trio out of featuring today could well have Celtic fans buzzing.
Forrest has already faced a spell on the sidelines this term, missing two months of action at the start of the campaign with a knee injury, whilst Furuhashi has missed the last two league games having picked up a hamstring injury against Real Betis in the Europa League.
The Japanese forward has been a kingpin in Postecoglou’s side this season and is Celtic’s current top scorer with 14 goals in 24 appearances across all competitions. Therefore, the 56-year-old will be desperate to have his star man available as he eyes his first trophy since taking the reins at Parkhead.
All eyes will be on the manager’s team sheet when it is revealed in or around 2pm. Let’s hope that some, maybe even all, of the injured trio will be part of it.
In other news: Postecoglou must unleash Celtic’s “aggressive” £5k-p/w gem today, he could bully Hibernian
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