RONNY Deila is facing an anxious wait to see if Scott Brown will be fit for Celtic’s crucial Europa League match with Molde next week after injuring his ankle yesterday.
The midfielder was carried off during training at Lennoxtown and medical staff at the Scottish champions will assess the full extent of the damage today.
Deila is hopeful his influential skipper will be able to play in the Ladbrokes Premiership meeting with Motherwell at Fir Park tomorrow afternoon.
However, the Norwegian admitted he was unsure if the 30-year-old would be available for the league game or the trip to his homeland to play Molde next week.
The game is vital to the Parkhead club’s chances of finishing in the top two in Group A and progressing to the knockout stages for the second season running.
“He (Brown) twisted his in a passing exercise,” said Deila. “He has done that many times.
"We don’t know before if he is out for Saturday or not, but it is not a major thing. He will be quick back I think, but we will have to see tomorrow how big it is.
“When I saw him he had tape on both ankles. I think both have been twisted before. As he has done that before many times then it is easier for him to get back quicker.”
“It is too early to say something about next week. We have to ask assess him more tomorrow and see the reaction of the swelling.”
Meanwhile, Deila has reiterated his desire to sign Carlton Cole, the former West Ham and England striker who has returned to Glasgow to rejoin the Celtic squad, on a permanent deal.
The 32-year-old, who is a free agent after parting company with West Ham in the summer, is available for nothing and Deila believes he can strengthen his options up front.
“He’s still injured so we haven’t done anything more at the moment," he said. "He was running a bit and we’ll see how he does next week.
“He has the qualities we are looking for, he’s a target man, a big guy and a person who brings energy in the dressing room.
“We have to see if he is physically capable of playing the way he did before. We are not at the contract stage yet so we’ll wait and see.”
Celtic have been linked with a move for Emil Berggreen, the Danish Under-21 internationalist who plays as a striker for German club Eintracht Braunschweig, during the January transfer window.
“There are a lot of options in January,” said Deila. “There are a lot of names going around but we are looking at strikers in January again.”
Deila confirmed that Leigh Griffiths, the Celtic striker who was forced to pull out of the Scotland squad last week with a calf strain, would be available for the game against Motherwell.
Elsewhere, Deila confirmed first team regulars Efe Ambrose, Nir Bitton, Mikael Lustig and Tom Rogic had all returned from international duty unscathed. Elsewhere, though, Stefan Johansen faces a fitness test before the game tomorrow.
“Stefan played on Tuesday and had a couple of knocks so we will see how he is,” he said.
“Stefan took a bad knock against Fenerbahce and didn’t train for a week. But he was ready for the game on Saturday and played well and did so again on Tuesday.
“Mikael played two games and that’s positive for him. It’s a big step. He hasn’t done that for some time so hopefully he gets some consistency.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel