The defender has made four appearances for the Scottish Premiership leaders.
Celtic boss Ronny Deila has suggested that Erik Sviatchenko will hugely benefit from the time that the Hoops will spend on the training ground in the coming days, the Evening Times reports.
The 24-year-old has featured four times since moving to Parkhead in January. And while Deila admits that he has been impressed with how the defender has settled in, he believes that the luxury of having a full week in between games will help him continue his development.
“He was thrown into the team when he could maybe have done with a little bit more time with us, but he has already shown what he can do,” he told the Evening Times.
“He is a really positive character. He is a great guy to have around the team and his attitude is good.
“But there is so much more to come from him and a week like this is good because it gives him the chance to get to work with the team and settle a bit more.”
As Deila alluded to, he has had little choice but to select the Denmark international in the past few weeks, regardless of whether he feels he is ready. The injury to Jozo Simunovic and the red card collected by Efe Ambrose in the Scottish League Cup semi-final defeat to Ross County has forced the manager’s hand.
While Sviatchenko has done well for someone who had not played for nearly two months before he made his Hoops debut, the time to train will surely allow him to continue his integration into the side.
And it won’t just be Sviatchenko that will benefit from Celtic’s break from action as the whole squad will get the chance to regroup before their game with Inverness on Saturday.
Also, by the time the league leaders take to the field to face John Hughes’ men, their main title rivals Aberdeen will have already played twice this week, which could prove to have an impact on the title race as Derek McInnes’ side go into Friday’s game with Partick having played just four days earlier while Celtic will have had seven days to recover.
And after the Dons lost to Inverness on Monday – meaning that Deila’s men should finish the week at the top of the table, and with a game in hand to potentially extend any advantage they have – it appears that this week is going to end a lot more positively for the Hoops than previous weeks have recently.
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