Celtic suffer fresh injury blow in defence as Callum McGregor return date pencilled in

Several first-choice players set to miss St Johnstone match

Celtic have suffered another injury blow in defence with Liam Scales ruled out of Saturday’s visit of St Johnstone.

The Irish centre-back has been an ever-present at the heart of the Celtic defence this season but now the injury curse that has affected Cameron Carter-Vickers, Maik Nawrocki and Stephen Welsh at various points has struck the former Shamrock Rovers man.

Scales’ absence from the back four will be be offset by the return of Carter-Vickers, who missed the Scottish Cup win over Livingston last week as a precaution after feeling tightness in his hamstring.

Defender Liam Scales has joined the lengthy injury list at Celtic. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

“Cameron Carter-Vickers is fine, he has trained and looks good so that’s great he is available,” Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said. “Liam Scales will miss the game, we think, he has picked up a knock in training.

“He has been so robust, everything about him has been great since he came into the team. Sadly he misses this game because he has played every other minute but he should be back after the international break.”

Rodgers has been encouraged by the progress of Callum McGregor as he looks to get his captain back to fitness after the international break.

The midfielder will miss his third consecutive game as he nurses an Achilles problem, and he was left out of the Scotland squad ahead of the upcoming friendlies against the Netherlands and Northern Ireland. However, Rodgers is hopeful that the 30-year-old could be available for the visit of Livingston on March 30.

“He is feeling good but he needs to get some clearance work in over the next week to 10 days and we will assess it for the Livingston game when we get back,” the Celtic boss said.

Luis Palma, Maik Nawrocki and Reo Hatate are also working to a similar timeline while Yang Hyun-jun completes a two-match suspension on Saturday.