CELTIC were handed a pre-match boost ahead of their Champions League meeting with Paris St Germain next Wednesday night when it was revealed that Thiago Motta, the veteran Brazilian who adds steel to their midfield, requires knee surgery and may not play again this year, writes Stewart Fisher.
The streetwise 35-year-old, whose duels with Scott Brown were a feature of the 5-0 win at Parkhead in the team’s first match, has complained of pain in his right knee since the 0-0 Ligue 1 draw at Montpellier in September.
Julian Draxler, the club’s German midfielder, and Thomas Meunier, the Belgian full back, are another two unlikely to feature for the league leaders in their Ligue 1 match against Nantes this Saturday, although they are being rested following their exertions on international duty and could come back into contention when Celtic come calling.
Unbeaten in the league this year, and leading Monaco at the top of the table - their last two results prior to the international break were 3-0 and 5-0 dismantlings of Nice and Angers - PSG are still never far from intrigue.
Neymar this week was forced to insist he is happy to stay at the club in the wake of rumoured interest from Real Madrid, and even suggestions that manager Unai Emery could be replaced next summer by Jose Mourinho.
While the Spaniard is out of contract this summer, it is believed that a run to the Champions League semi-finals would be enough to trigger a further year of his deal.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel