Celtic's Carl Starfelt addresses Kevin Nisbet tackle accusations - 'I cannot see how you can say that'

It isn’t always the case that a player will be pleased at being presented with the sternest challenge possible.

That is how Celtic centre-back Carl Starfelt feels about what awaits him in the club’s trip east to face Hibs at Easter Road, though.

Kevin Nisbet’s return from injury assures that for the Scottish champions’ backline. The striker has two goals from two games - the first time he has netted in consecutive league outings for the Leith club - since he made his comeback from 10 months out. A period that ensued from damaging knee ligaments and tearing his meniscus following a tackle by Starfelt in the early stages of the teams’ last meeting in the capital. The Swede was called out for a “bad challenge” by then manager Shaun Maloney following the incident, and in some quarters the contact that led to Nisbet’s lengthy period on the sidelines has been labelled a nasty one. Starfelt, who lost two months of this season to a knee injury himself, believes it is not fair for anyone to accuse him of anything underhand over what befell Nisbet on a rutted pitch.

“I haven’t heard anything about that,” the Celtic defender said. “It was really sad to see that he got a bad injury. You don’t want to be involved in that kind of injury. I know how hard it is to be kept out of the game. I felt really sorry for him, but I cannot see how you can say that it was a nasty challenge. It was not intended at all.”

Hibs striker Kevin Nisbet injured his cruciate ligament in a tackle from Carl Starfelt during Celtic's last trip to Easter Road on February 27. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

Starfelt has now started four of Celtic’s past five league games since he ended his spell out in early November. The five-week break for the World Cup allowed him a concerted period of working out on the training ground but the 27-year-old feels he still requires more competitive outings to push towards peak conditioning.

“I felt I had some good weeks of training during the break and while I am not yet 100 percent I feel I am getting back there,” he said. “You need to play games and I feel my best after a few weeks of consistently playing. Physically I feel good and I feel that I’m in a good place.”

Celtic could hardly be in a better place in the cinch Premiership after establishing a nine-point lead at the top of the table courtesy of winning 17 of their 18 encounters. However, Ange Postecoglou has challenged his squad to take their form to the “next level” and Starfelt is at one with that mindset.

“We need to keep improving,” he said. “We always want to evolve. We want to do big things so we need to keep improving. You could see that in the Champions League. Now, it’s domestic this year, but long term we want to keep improving and be able to give even more in the European competitions. You can always get better. I feel like we have been evolving consistently and if we keep working with these players, I’m sure we will get even better.

“There is competition in almost all of the positions. It keeps everyone a little bit on the edge. You know that you cannot relax in games or in training. In games, it is a bit more natural to give 100 per cent but also in training you need to be really at it. It’s good. At a club like Celtic, that’s how it should be.”