Ange Postecoglou is facing a selection dilemma ahead of visiting Ferencvaros in the Europa League as the Celtic boss has stated Carl Starfelt is out through injury, via the Daily Record.
The Bhoys travel to Hungary looking to do the double over the Groupama Arena outfit on Thursday. Celtic beat Peter Stoger’s Green Eagles 2-0 at Parkhead last month, and likely need another win to stand a realistic chance of progressing from the group stage.
Celtic sit third in Group G after three games, having lost to joint-leaders Real Betis and Bayer Leverkusen. Ferencvaros are yet to take a point, but Postecoglou will be without Starfelt and teammate Tom Rogic on Thursday.
Postecoglou has confirmed £4.5m summer signing Starfelt sustained an injury as Celtic beat Livingston on Saturday. The 26-year-old started the Premiership fixture for his 20th Hoops appearance across all competitions so far since joining.
Rogic was unavailable against Livi due to a hamstring injury sustained against Hibernian last week. And Postecoglou admits both, Rogic and Starfelt, will miss Celtic’s trip to Ferencvaros and Sunday’s subsequent Premiership visit to Dundee.
“We lost Carl Starfelt in the last game and similar sort of timeline to Tommy, I guess,” Postecoglou said. “We are hoping he will be back after the international break, but he will definitely miss these two games. Everyone else got through the [Livingston] game okay.”
Postecoglou facing Celtic headache after Starfelt injury
Starfelt’s injury will leave Postecoglou facing a selection headache ahead of Celtic’s trip to Ferencvaros in the Europa League. The Australian has started his £17k-a-week signing in all but two fixtures since moving to Glasgow in July.
Starfelt has so far only missed the Bhoys’ Premiership loss at Livingston in September and the second-leg of their Champions League qualifier with Midtjylland. Livi’s trip to Parkhead on Saturday also marked the first time he failed to play from start to end while featuring.
Postecoglou will hope Celtic do not continue their trend of losing fixtures without star man Starfelt featuring after his injury. He has also helped to keep nine clean sheets this term.
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