Celtic reshuffle their squad - hope given over injured duo but one surprising omission

Celtic have reshaped their squad for their forthcoming bow in the Europa Conference League that will see them contest the play-off stage for the last 16 against Bodo/Glimt next week.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou is preparing for the return of European football.

Clubs are allowed to make three changes from 25-strong squads from the pre-Christmas group stages and for the ties – the first leg of which will be played in Glasgow on February 17 with the Norwegian return a week later – manager Ange Postecoglou has included January signings Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Matt O’Riley. The other senior window arrival, Yosuke Ideguchi, has not made the list after picking up an ankle injury on his debut against Alloa in the Scottish Cup three weeks ago. Fellow midfielder Ismaila Soro has also dropped off the list, with the Ivorian only failing to move to Fortuna Sittard on deadline day owing to issues with a work permit.

It will be the presence of Kyogo Furuhashi and David Turnbull in Celtic’s European squad – which also names Christopher Jullien even as he awaits his first game-time in over a year – that may raise hopes of potential imminent returns for the long-term injured pair.

Both are currently sidelined with hamstring problems expected to keep them out for two months. With both the players pulling up in the closing days of December this could suggest that they may have an outside chance of appearing in the second leg in February 24, though Postecoglou has been reluctant to speculate over timescales for the pair.

A message from the Editor: Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.