Brendan Rodgers is hoping to have Callum McGregor back in action by the end of this month.
The Celtic skipper was substituted at half-time against Dundee on February 28 and has missed the last two matches.
An Achilles and calf issue has been identified as the problem with Rodgers previously speaking about McGregor suffering from the issue at this time of year.
A midweek scan proved to be inconclusive with McGregor easing back from training with next Saturday’s match at home to St Johnstone already a write-off for the midfielder who had started every SPFL match this season until his absence at Tynecastle
Rest seems to be the only cure for the issue with Celtic looking to ease their captain back towards match fitness during the two week break between playing St Johnstone and the away match against Livingston on March 31.
Covering McGregor’s injury, the Daily Mail reports Rodgers saying:
As I said last week, we were going to shut him down until the international break. He obviously won’t go with the national team and then we’ll take it from there.
It always is (a concern) if you have your top players and your captain not available.
Of course, there will be other players who can come in, but the level that he brings to the game is beyond what a lot of our players can do.
To be fair, it’s a bit like Jamesy Forrest coming into the game today, what a joy to see someone come in for that 25 minutes with that quality and the football idea he brought to the game.
The likes of Callum is a player that is important for us, so fingers crossed again that we can get to the bottom of that and he’ll be available after the international break.
Returning from a muscle injury onto the plastic pitch at the Tony Macaroni Stadium isn’t ideal but with a match at Ibrox a week later Rodgers will want his captain to be fully ready for that fixture.
Perhaps a place on the bench at Livingston might be the ideal solution with Celtic running short of midfield options making the January transfer of David Turnbull harder to justify.
With Reo Hatate playing 20 minutes of club football since the end of October and Matt O’Riley under the weather with a virus Daniel Kelly has came off the bench in the last three home matches with Odi Thiago Holm next in line for a place.
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