Celtic face Hearts on Sunday afternoon at Hampden Park.
Brendan Rodgers will be without a whole host of first-team stars on Sunday afternoon after three more players were ruled out following Thursday night’s Europa League loss to RB Leipzig.
The Hoops fielded a very makeshift side in Germany on Thursday, which saw Cristian Gamboa, Kouassi Eboue, Ryan Christie and Lewis Morgan all start for Rodgers’ side.
However, they suffered a 2-0 loss to the ambitious German side, leaving their chances of qualification into the knockout stage of the Europa League thinning.
Salzburg sit top of Group B, while Leipzig are in second on six. Celtic are third after beating Rosenborg, with the Norwegian side also losing to Salzburg and Leipzig.
Celtic will be looking to put the loss behind them ahead of Sunday’s Scottish League Cup semi-final, but they are even shorter of players than they were against Leipzig.
Indeed, Dedryck Boyata is now suspended and Jozo Simunovic picked up an injury which Rodgers stated had “immediate swelling” after Thursday’s clash. Cristian Gamboa also suffered a hamstring problem, which saw him replaced at half-time.
The trio join Nir Bitton, Leigh Griffiths, Tom Rogic, Scott Brown, Kris Ajer and Filip Benkovic on the sidelines, as Rodgers now prepares a side to face Hearts despite being without nine players.
Rodgers has won every single domestic trophy since joining Celtic, but he is now perhaps under the most pressure in holding aloft silverware while Hearts will be fancying their chances.
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