Celtic will meet Motherwell in the quarter-final of the Scottish League Cup, as they look to defend their title. They will be without a number of their key players on the day though, as they visit Fir Park to take on Steven Hammell’s side, who have not been in good form recently.
It goes without saying that Jota has been a big miss for Celtic in recent games. Who knows how the reverse fixture against RB Leipzig at Parkhead could have gone if he had played. After all, the Portuguese winger did score in the game in Germany and remains the club’s only player to find the back of the net in the Champions League this season.
Celtic did not feel the absence of Jota at the weekend though, as they put six past Hibernian in what was a 6-1 win at Parkhead for the Hoops, to get some momentum back on their side and remind themselves on how to score. Coming into that game, they had scored only 6 goals over the previous 7 matches.
Celtic will be once again without Jota when they take to the pitch against Motherwell. But it looks like the Portuguese winger is not a million miles away from making his return to the pitch. As reported by the Daily Record, Ange Postecoglou said regarding the matter:
"“Jota’s progressing, He’s out training but he won’t be right for tomorrow. From the weekend, it will pretty much be as is. The ones closest to coming back at Jota and Turnbull but they’ll miss tomorrow and we’ll just see about the weekend.”"
Postecoglou rules out Celtic star vs Motherwell
Thus, Postecoglou has ruled Jota out when it comes to making an appearance vs Motherwell and it remains to be seen if he will be available at the weekend or not.
Jota’s situation has been a bit of a mystery to be honest. He was taken off at half-time against St Johnstone with what was thought to be ‘fatigue’ but is yet to even make the bench since then.
It is a positive sign that Jota is back in training though and that does mean that it should not be a long time before he is back in contention. When that will be still remains to be seen.
David Turnbull is close to coming back as well while Callum McGregor and Carl Starfelt remain out for the foreseeable future.