Cameron Carter-Vickers won’t be in the Celtic squad to face Aberdeen today.
The defender hasn’t played since the September 18 win over Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League but was pictured in training at Lennoxtown yesterday.
After missing four matches and a month of action with a toe injury it seems that the Celtic medical team re being very cautious about the issue.
Auston Trusty was among Celtic’s best performers away to Ross County with his arrival allowing extra time to be given to Carter-Vickers to ensure that there are no more set backs. The former Sheffield United man will continue to partner Liam Scales in defence against Aberdeen.
Carter-Vickers played on with a knee issue in the early months of 2023, delaying surgery until the end of April following the Scottish Cup semi-final win over Micky Beale’s mob.
Last season was stop-start for the former Spurs man, mainly due to the lack of alternatives in central defence with his return alongside Reo Hatate a big factor in securing the domestic double.
Now it seems that Rodgers feels he has cover with Scales, Trusty and Stephen Welsh to allow Carter-Vickers to make a full recovery followed by a phased return to first team action.
Cam has trained for the last few days, so we’ll just wait for a reaction after today just to see if he’s going to be available for tomorrow.
Greg Taylor is doing really well, but he won’t probably come back into the squad training until after the Atalanta game, but apart from that, we’re in a good place physically.
Later on Rodgers was asked about holding Carter-Vickers back for Wednesday’s Champions League match against Atalanta, replying:
No, just for tomorrow. Just look at that game first. I think what we’re conscious of with Cam is he had a wee bit last season where he was in and out, even though it’s a totally different injury this time.
It’s one where we were told at the time, it could’ve been anywhere between two and three months, but it’s just not wanting to push him back in too early, which might then set him back, so he’s doing really, really well.
He still has a discomfort there, not as bad as what it was for the Bratislava game, but we don’t think he’s too far away from being where he wants to be. So we’re just trying to manage that and just react to each day he trains to see what the after-effects are.
It would seem high risk if Carter-Vickers was to go into the team that plays Atalanta on Wednesday with next Sunday’s match at Motherwell or the home game with Dundee four days later more likely return dates.
Today’s team will be announced at 1.45pm.
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