Celtic are less than ten days away from welcoming the Rangers to Parkhead to take on a vital Scottish Premiership match between the two Glasgow giants. If the Hoops end up winning that game then it might hand them the title for all intents and purposes. On the other hand, anything other than a win would be a blow to Michael Beale’s side.
Of course, Celtic have an away trip to Ross County this weekend and they cannot make the mistake of looking past that. On the other hand, the Rangers will be taking on Dundee United.
And Beale has confirmed a blow for the Rangers just a week before the Glasgow Derby. Their January signing, Nicolas Raskin, is going to miss the match against Dundee United and will only return to training next week. Thus, he has to be in a race against time to be fit for the big game at Celtic Park.
As reported by the Football Scotland, Beale said:
"“We’ll be missing Raskin, he will be returning to training next week.“Next week, Raskin and Leon King should be available so we will get two more bodies back.”"
Beale confirms Rangers blow days before facing Celtic
Even if Raskin ends up being available for the game against Celtic, he would be expected to have a tough time making the starting XI coming off the back of an injury. Of course, the Hoops cannot waste one second looking towards the Rangers’ problems.
Celtic have injury problems of their own. The likes of Daizen Maeda, Liel Abada, Aaron Mooy, Tomoki Iwata, Reo Hatate, Anthony Ralston and more have been dealing with issues in recent weeks. The hope is that the majority of them will be available for selection by the time the Rangers come visiting.
While the Rangers game is very important for Celtic for more reasons than one, they have to concentrate on getting past Ross County this weekend. Malky Mackay’s side are facing relegation and thus, a lot will be riding on this result for them as well.