Celtic issue injury update on key duo as mood in camp revealed during Martin O'Neill's 'reflection' period

Celtic defenders Alistair Johnston and Cameron Carter-Vickers won’t be available for Thursday night’s Europa League clash against Celta Vigo - but both are on the road to recovery.

The pair were both spotted in training at Lennoxtown, giving fans hope that they may be available for selection at Celtic Park tomorrow night. However, Shaun Maloney confirmed that they’ll be back for the weekend’s trip to Hibs, but not Thursday night. The Hoops assistant - who stood in for manager Martin O’Neill for media duties as he deals with a personal matter - also confirmed North American stopper Auston Trusty and midfielder Oliver Sorenson will also miss the Celta Vigo clash.

The match against the Spanish outfit is almost already at the must-win stage for Celtic following their poor start to the Europa League. O’Neill’s men lost out Ferencvaros and Benfica in their opening two encounters and currently sit 34th of 36 in the league phase standings.

Maloney issues injury update on key duo

But if Celtic are to overcome their ‘Spanish cousins’, they’ll have to do it without Johnston, who’s been out with a hamstring issue and Carter-Vickers, who’s been nursing a muscle strain. Maloney explained: “Alistair's (Johnston) been back training a little bit longer, Cameron (Carter-Vickers) just started this week.

“Both won't make tomorrow but they should, if it goes well in the next couple of days, be available for the squad on Sunday. Auston Trusty has got a private matter, so he won't make tomorrow. Oliver Sorensen was pretty similar but he's back in the country today so he'll be in the squad tomorrow.”

The defensive omissions didn’t affect the squad in the weekend’s 7-1 demolition of Hearts. Right back Colby Donovan continued to impress in the absence of Johnston, while centre back Dane Murray is arguably undergoing is best spell in a green and white jersey. Maloney was keen to give the 23-year old his flower for recent performances.

He continued: “Yes, he's (Murray) obviously missed a lot through a couple of knee injuries, so yes, a really talented guy. He's also come through some really difficult moments when he has played for the first team. He's playing well at the moment.”

What was the Celtic dressing room’s reaction to O’Neill’s reflection period?

The empathetic Hoops win at the weekend against last season’s title rivals almost makes the pre-international break dip in form a distant memory. Before the lay-off, Celtic lost three games in a row, leading to question marks over the manager. O’Neill claimed he took the three week period to reflect on his position but quickly came to the conclusion he was going to stay on.

Maloney claims that he made his decision so early that it didn’t really affect the Hoops camp. He added: “It was fine. I think Martin made a decision pretty quickly and then started speaking about how we wanted to improve the sides in games like tomorrow. That happened really quickly.

“For us as staff, it was fine. That was within a couple of days. It's our job to take his vision of how he sees the team and try and coach the team in that vision. Pretty quickly, you have to get on with that. It was a really tough week before the international break, really difficult. It probably came at a really good time for us to reset.”

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