da jogodeouro： Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic side have been dealt a fresh injury setback concerning Stephen Welsh ahead of their Scottish Premiership meeting with Old Firm rivals Rangers this weekend.
What’s the latest?
da betsul： That’s according to a report by the Daily Record, who revealed that the centre-back was withdrawn shortly after half-time in Scotland U21’s 2-2 draw with Kazakhstan on Tuesday afternoon, with the 22-year-old looking to be holding his groin upon his substitution.
Postecoglou will be fuming
While it would appear unlikely that Welsh would have been handed a starting berth at Ibrox this Sunday, considering just how impressive the youngster has been so far this season, the news that the defender looks to have sustained an injury on international duty that could well rule him out of contention for the Old Firm fixture is sure to have left Postecoglou fuming nonetheless.
Indeed, over his nine Premiership appearances this term, the £1.35m-rated academy graduate has been rock solid for the Bhoys, helping his side keep three clean sheets, as well as making an average of 1.6 interceptions, 0.8 tackles, 2.2 clearances, 85.9 passes and winning 5.1 duels – at a success rate of 59% – per game.
These returns have seen the £10.5k-per-week starlet average an extremely impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.11, ranking him as Postecoglou’s joint 11th-best player in the top flight of Scottish football.
As such, while the 56-year-old manager’s first-choice pairing of Carl Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers are both more than likely to be selected in the XI on Sunday, should either player pick up a knock in the run-up to the fixture, or even in the game itself, the loss of an incredibly reliable backup option in Welsh is sure to hit Celtic hard.
Indeed, with the chance of leaving Ibrox six points ahead of Rangers in the league standings – something that would all but confirm Celtic’s reclamation of the Premiership title – it is certain that the Greek-Australian manager will be hoping to have as many as his first-team squad fit and firing by the time Sunday rolls around.
AND in other news: £10.5m and counting: £23.5k-p/w “monster” should have played his final game for Celtic