Celtic wasted a glorious opportunity to climb to the top of the SPFL table after they lost 2-0 against Hearts on Sunday (4 February).
The door was open for the Hoops to overtake Rangers after the Gers lost 2-1 at Ibrox on Saturday.
Brendan Rodgers has another major problem at the moment. He is without his talisman midfielder Callum McGregor as the Hoops skipper recovers from injury.
McGregor didn’t make the matchday squad against Hearts and needless to say Celtic missed their influential skipper.
Writing for the Daily Record (page 38), Keith Jackson has suggested that Celtic will not win the title if McGregor is out for a long time due to injuries. Rodgers will be “battering down the door” of the medical room to get his skipper back at the earliest.
“Probably not. Celtic’s midfield simply doesn’t tick the same way without him,” wrote Jackson.
“Brendan Rodgers will be battering down the door of the medical room at Lennoxtown to get his captain back as quickly as possible.”
Celtic need to maintain consistency
Rodgers was left furious and he didn’t mince words after the game as he lashed out at harsh decisions that went against them during the game.
Paulo Bernando was used in midfield in place of McGregor but he was taken off at half-time. It was a forced change as the Bhoys went down to ten men after Hyunjun Yang’s controversial red card.
Even with ten men, Celtic could have forged a strong performance with their skipper in the side. That shows, how badly Celtic have missed him, and losing him is a major blow. It is clear that the likes of Bernando and Tomoki Iwata will need to step up now.
Rodgers said after the game that he doesn’t expect the 30-year-old midfielder to be out for a long spell. However, there’s no point rushing him back into the side when they have enough depth in the side to cope with injury issues.
