The second Old Firm derby is still a couple of weeks away, moved for what we now know as unjustifiable reasons – to put it into perspective, Celtic fielded 10 players against Hibs on Monday night that wouldn’t have been able to play before the break with Shaun Maloney having two starting centre-halves missing who would have played for them, but Celtic definitely wanted the winter break moved for the fans, blow torch and neck springs to mind.
Rangers on the other hand had seven internationals missing for the trip to Pittodrie, a result that, now we have calmed down a bit, doesn’t look quite as bad – all things considered.
Both sides will have players missing for what will be a key decider in the title race but, ironically, it looks like Celtic could be worse off.
Speaking to the BBC, via The Herald, Ange Postecoglou confirmed that it looks like Kyogo Furuhashi could be out for a good few weeks yet:
“It’s fair to say he hasn’t recovered from the injury.
“We’re still getting some advice on it. He’s not likely to feature in the next couple of weeks at least, it could be longer.
“In terms of definite time frames we’re just getting some more info and hopefully during the week we’ll know a little bit more.”
Rangers on the other hand are starting to get players back with Kemar Roofe, Filip Helander and Ryan Jack all seen in training this week – their return to action getting ever closer and it couldn’t come at a better time.
Celtic have added players but Postecoglou has claimed that they won’t be doing any other business, Rangers on the other hand haven’t finished strengthening yet.
There are a few games still to play between now and the 2nd February but the build up has already begun, the question of who will and won’t be available getting asked on a near daily basis, having such a big game in the middle of an international break not the SPFL’s brightest idea.
We need to focus on ourselves though and look to continue the momentum that was controversially halted in its tracks, get the heads down, be proactive, aggressive and go on the sort of run of results that sets us up to retain our title – let them dodge games, cry conspiracy and attempt to influence officials, karma works in mysterious ways.