Celtic Faces Injury Concerns Ahead of Old Firm Derby

Celtic will go into Sunday’s Old Firm derby watching the treatment room as closely as the tactics board after their bruising Europa League defeat at Celtic Park.

Martin O’Neill put his players through a recovery session on Friday, less than 24 hours after the loss, with several key figures nursing knocks from a physically draining night. The schedule is unforgiving. The stakes, even higher.

“The players are just a bit of a warm-down today, the lads who played most of the game, so we’ll see how they are,” O’Neill said, outlining the first step in a race against time. “There’s one or two lads who came off; we’ll have a look to see how they are tomorrow.”

Those “one or two” are at the heart of his concern. The players who carried the heaviest load on Thursday were restricted to warm-down work while the medical staff began assessing the damage. Only after that will O’Neill know how much of his preferred XI he can actually put on the pitch.

The timing could hardly be harsher. Celtic must pick themselves up quickly as they host Rangers in the Premiership on Sunday, looking for a response and some revenge. Rangers swept them aside 3-0 last weekend, a result that still lingers in the background as the second Old Firm derby of the season hurtles into view.

O’Neill has almost no room to breathe between European disappointment and domestic fury. Training plans are being shaped around ice baths and scans, not just shape and set pieces. The next 48 hours will be about who can go, who has to sit, and how much risk Celtic are willing to take with Rangers arriving in Glasgow with confidence and a recent three-goal win over their greatest rivals in the bank.

By the time Sunday comes, the team sheet may tell its own story about how heavy Thursday night really was.