BRENDAN RODGERS has revealed Celtic’s injury crisis is improving at last after Emilio Izaguirre ‘got away’ with a bad challenge on him during his side’s 2-0 win over Hibs.
The left-back feared he’d been badly hurt by a poor tackle from Darnell Johnson during the final stages of this victory at Parkhead which kept the champions six points clear of second placed Rangers.
Rodgers began the week with 12 of his first-team players unavailable; however, they are now getting back to being available for the upcoming Scottish Cup, Premiership and Europa League fixtures.
The Celtic manager confirmed: “Olivier Ntcham will hopefully be back towards the weekend, having been training all week.
“It was brilliant to have Dedryck Boyata on there tonight. We asked him to give us 60-70 minutes, he did that and was unfortunate not to score. So that’s a plus after having him out for so long. Hopefully Odsonne Edouard will be okay by the weekend.
“With James Forrest, the scan (on his hamstring) was clear. So, again, we just need to monitor the tightness. Whether he will be available for the weekend or not, I would think he’ll definitely be available for Valencia. We’ll assess it over the coming days.”
Izaguirre has been filling in for the injured Kieran Tierney who has also been back in training after being out for six weeks.
Manager and player feared Johnson, who was only booked, had crocked him when the veteran was carried from the pitch on a stretcher.
Rodgers said: “It was a clumsy challenge. At best it was clumsy, because he was over on the ball.
I think it scared Emilio a little bit, because he’s had issues with broken ankles before. But the medical team are telling me they think he’s got away with it. He’s a little bit sore but he will be OK in a few days.
“Listen, Craig (Thomson) is a very good referee. He maybe didn’t see it at the time, he was maybe blinded by it. But, yeah, it wasn’t a good challenge at all.”
Ryan Christie and Oli Burke scored the goals in either half to secure what was an easy win for Celtic.
Rodgers said: “It was a good, controlled performance. The shape Hibs play can be difficult to play against, a diamond. But I thought we worked it out well in the game, opening up the sides.
“We scored a very good first goal, although at times in the first half we could have been cleaner with our passing. We gave it away and our build-up was a bit loose. But the second half was better for us – and it’s a very good three points.
“As everyone’s aware, we’re lots of players down with injury. But the players we have are very much a team. And that was very much a team performance.”
Eddie May, the Hibs stand-in manager, will find out today whether he and Grant Murray will take charge of the team for Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie with Raith Rovers – which is looking increasingly likely.
May said: “I don’t know if I’ll be in charge at the weekend yet. The people from the club who have been down south talking to people came back today, so I should find out in the morning what the situation is.
“If me and Grant and me are in charge at the weekend, we will prepare the team as best we can to try and win a game of football.”
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