Another Celtic star set to be forced out of Glasgow Derby

This international break is turning out to be a nightmare for Celtic as another of their first-team stars looks set to be forced out of the Glasgow Derby.

It looks like Celtic might be forced to put out a heavily weakened team in the Glasgow Derby on October 17th as they will be missing a number of their players for one reason or the other.

Firstly, James Forrest is confirmed to be out of the game after suffering a fractured ankle against Riga, which will keep him out of action at least till the start of November. Then the club were handed a hammer blow last night as Odsonne Edouard tested positive for COVID-19 away on international duty and his participation in the Glasgow Derby has been put in doubt as a result of it as well.

And now, Ryan Christie also looks set to be out of the game after former Celtic star Stuart Armstrong returned a positive test on Scotland national team duty as reported by The Guardian. Christie and Kieran Tierney were identified as close contacts of the player and as a result have been ordered to quarantine for 14 days.

It is noteworthy though that nobody other than Armstrong returned a positive result in the Scotland national team squad.

This does raise the question though about the thinking behind organising an international break in the middle of a global pandemic. Clearly international travel is resulting in a number of players catching the virus and is also increasing the risk of spread, something that was at a minimum in the sporting bubble that they were in for the past several months.

Now it remains to be seen whether any change is made to the 14-day term that Christie has been told to spend in quarantine. If it is upheld then there is no chance of him featuring in the Derby and Celtic will go into the game with a significantly weakened squad.