Celtic triple injury blow for Bayer Leverkusen game

Celtic have a mountain to climb when they face Bayer Leverkusen away in Germany. Ange Postecoglou’s side will go into the game looking for a result, because if they lose and Real Betis beat Ferencvaros, then the Hoops’ hopes of making it to the knockout phase of the Europa League will be over. Thankfully, they will still have Europa Conference League action to look forward to in that scenario.

Celtic have been in great form recently though, having won eight of their previous nine games across all competitions. On the other hand, Bayer Leverkusen have struggled, and have had a series of injury problems as well.

That does provide Postecoglou’s side some hope. But even then, Bayer Leverkusen are one of the best sides in the Bundesliga. The reverse fixture ended 4-0 in the German club’s favour. That just goes on to show how much of an improvement Celtic will need to make in order to get a result away from home.

Heading into the game, Celtic have their injury problems as well. Rumours had suggested that Tom Rogic and Carl Starfelt could be back in time for the game but it looks like that won’t be the case. Giorgos Giakoumakis’ injury problems have continued as well.

Celtic handed triple injury blow for Bayer Leverkusen game

As reported by Football Scotland, Postecoglou said:

"“No-one else really coming back, Tommy is close, we’ll probably leave him for the weekend and Carl is probably a couple of days behind him so both are very close but we’ve got a lot of games coming up so we’ve got to be careful.“Giakoumakis is still having a little bit of an issue with his knee so we’re gonna get that checked out to see what the actual problem is.“I don’t expect anything long term but he’ll be out as well so pretty much as is from the weekend.”"

All three are important players for Celtic. Rogic and Starfelt were regulars in the starting XI before both of them ended up picking up injuries in quick succession. And it is safe to say that the Hoops have missed their presence.

On the other hand, while Giakoumakis might not have been able to establish himself in the starting XI since arriving in the summer, he is still the backup to Kyogo and his injury leaves Postecoglou scrambling for options up top.