Brendan Rodgers has revealed that Cameron Carter-Vickers and Maik Nawrocki will be out of action for two months.
Both defenders suffered hamstring injuries during the matches against Aberdeen and Kilmarnock to leave a massive gap in the Celtic defence.
Carter-Vickers lasted 45 minutes of the win at Pittodrie before being replaced, that was his second comeback match following knee surgery at the start of May.
Nawrocki is only three matches into his Celtic career but suffered a late knock on the plastic pitch at Kilmarnock on Sunday that has brought his Celtic career to a halt.
With a Glasgow Derby and Champions League campaign starting next month Rodgers will have to rethink his defensive plans ahead of a critical stage of the season.
The only consolation is that there is a week left in the transfer window, had the injuries occurred a fortnight later it would have been a long slog through to the January transfer window.
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has confirmed that centre-backs Cameron Carter-Vickers and Maik Nawrocki will be out for around two months with injuries.
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— Anthony Joseph (@AnthonyRJoseph) August 24, 2023
The actual quotes were for eight weeks which reaches to October 19, covering just six SPFL matches. On October 21 Celtic are away to Hearts.
🔊 LISTEN: “We have to look at it, no doubt… it’s a specialised position.”
🍀 Brendan Rodgers says Celtic will look to bring in an “experienced” defender to help with their injury crisis after confirming Cameron Carter-Vickers and Maik Nawrocki will miss eight weeks of action. pic.twitter.com/F7D7jwsru1
— Clyde 1 Superscoreboard (@ClydeSSB) August 24, 2023
Compounding the bad news Stephen Welsh required an ankle operation after suffering ligament damage in training after signing a contract extension.
Rodgers is left with Gustaf Lagerbielke who has played one match for Celtic and Liam Scales whose last Celtic appearance was away to Bodo Glimt 18 months ago.
Tomoki Iwata is an emergency option to play in defence but it looks like Celtic will have to make a short term signing to bail out their broken central defence.
In 2016 Kolo Toure arrived in an emergency, with Mark Lawwell’s database and contacts it looks like Celtic will be forced to bring in a free agent or loan signing to give them an element of cover for the next couple of months.
Fortunately there are international breaks in September, October and November to reduce the matches being missed by the three crocked defenders but the task in the Champions League has just moved along from difficult to almost impossible with just three matches before the hoops return to Europe’s biggest stage.
Injury details from 1 minute 50 seconds
