MIKAEL LUSTIG faces a fitness battle ahead of next month’s League Cup Final against Dundee United.
Ronny Deila has this afternoon confirmed that the injury picked up in the second half at Dens Park on Saturday will keep the Swedish full back out of the side for at least a month.
The Celtic manager also revealed that Kris Commons, who was also substituted at the weekend after feeling something in his hamstring,will be out of Wednesday’s squad to face Partick Thistle at Firhill. Commons will target the Inter Milan game at Celtic Park on February 19th for his return to first team action.
Lustig has only recently returned to the side after an extensive period on the treatment table whereas Commons has been in sparkling form since the turn of the year and recently signed a two year extension to his contract at the club.
Celtic have new bhoys Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong available for the trip to Maryhill while Adam Matthews is likely to fill in for Lustig at right back.
Celtic have sold out all 60,000 seats* for the visit to Inter Milan on February 19th.
Meanwhile Ronny Delia, who travelled to Italy after Celtic’s comfortable Scottish Cup success at Dundee on Saturday lunchtime, to watch Celtic’s Europa League opponents, has confirmed that Inter Milan have some weaknesses that Celtic can exploit. He was impressed with what he saw at the San Siro with Inter taking care of Palermo in a three nil victory. The Celtic manager had this to say about his spying mission:
‘Inter are a good, strong team who are powerful, particularly in the midfield, and they have strikers who can score goals. In the end, they won the match quite easily.
‘We know it’s going to be a tough game for us but there are also opportunities because, as well as having strengths, Inter also have some weaknesses.
‘The San Siro is a very impressive stadium, and it will be great for us to play there. It was also very helpful to be there on Sunday night to see Inter in action, and it gives you a much better view of the team when you’re there.
‘Our goal is to go through to the last 16 of the competition, and to do that we’ll have to produce two very good performances, home and away.
‘But I know that we’re capable of doing this, and we’re looking forward to the tie.’
*The image above shows the seating plan for Celtic Park for the Inter game with red representing sold seats.
