Injuries, bruises and dopamine levels for O’Neill to consider

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Amid the hysteria around the Scotland national team’s qualification for the World Cup, Auston Trusty’s contribution to the USA side against Uruguay escaped my attention. Auston got the full 90 minutes and earned an assist in the USA’s 5-1 win.

In total, 12 Celtic first-team players were away on international duty, with most arriving back at Lennoxtown today to be assessed.  Sebastian Tounekti and Colby Donovan both have confirmed injuries, while Daizen Maeda started yesterday in Tokyo with the prospect of an entire day spent in airport and a plane before touching down in Glasgow. Even peak Daizen toils after international duty.

Johnny Kenny and Michel-Ange Balikwisha made their international debuts in landmark winning games, while Liam Scales reached new peaks.  As well as injuries and bruises, Martin O’Neill will have an eye on dopamine levels as he prepares for the weekend.  He knows too well what can happen to players after emotional highs (winning at Anfield, for example) at small away grounds. They are not machines.

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  1. Hot Smoked @ 9:58 am,

     

     

    ” Burnley78 @ 9:54 am

     

     

    Dessybhoy

     

     

    What is your big solution to the problem of 16 leagues in 20 seasons then ?”

     

     

    :-)))))”

     

     

    Don’t Know🤷‍♂️

     

     

    Sack The Manager????

     

     

    Aff oot…

     

     

    Hail Hail

  2. An Tearmann…

     

    You really do have to stop patrolling the blog like a bobby on the beat. Posters can respond to others without interference from your goodself, surely?

  3. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Soz Tom.

     

     

    Safety Advisory Group.

     

     

    BTW (or By The Way) …

     

     

    … can anyone remember the name of a poster (who no longer posts) who used abbreviations constantly?

     

     

    I found some of his stuff interesting … but deciphering his posts involved a fair bit of work.

  4. WBC 12.12

     

     

    An Tearmann…

     

     

    You really do have to stop patrolling the blog like a bobby on the beat. Posters can respond to others without interference from your goodself, surely.

     

     

    Do run along with your notion of blog policeman wbc.

     

    It’s an easy route approach me instead of our resident racist eh wbc where there is no comment at all,

  5. glendalystonsils on

    Paul67

     

    Unfortunately we are getting to the stage now with injuries where we have few options for resting players . We’re just going to have to put Dopamine , airmiles , bumps and bruises out of our heads . Presumably St mirren will be much less affected by injury and international travel , so we will have our work cut out on Saturday . Having said that , I have a wee sneaking feeling that the dons might take something from Hearts .

  6. B78

     

    I was out and posted this on the previous article, that is exactly board thinking,Nicolson has said World Class Club Champions League competitor, now we aren’t best in Scotland,getting hammered in the EL, that is the shambles this board has presided over,it is now waging war through the media and releases on a section of support, if they’re so bad cancel their season books,why haven’t the done this? Could it be that the event is exagerrated or fake?It is time for all the NEDs to be gone,along with the silent CEO who is hopelessly out of his depth, we need to see the plan to develop the club into the best it can be, not what it is, hoarding supporters money earned from the support, hope you noticed I did not use World Class my expectations are less than that but that is more realistic. This board are killing and stifling any ambition of what Celtic FC can be.

  7. GlassTwoThirdsFull on

    Strange that for over a year Trusty was a dud that BR had blown £6m on. Since he left him out of a game we lost he’s become the new Franco Baresi!

  8. Hoop hoop Hooray on

    One man’s ‘hysteria’ is another nations sheer joy at qualifying for a world cup for the first time in a generation with injury time goals at home in front of 50,000 fans. It’s what makes football special to some.

  9. DESSYBHOY on 20TH NOVEMBER 2025 12:53 PM

     

    B78

     

     

     

    My take is that previous thinking is that we need to spend big to back a Billy big baws manager and that we take cold feet at that , as that path leads to financial ruin. Alternative approach is to take a more scientific approach to fitbaw which does not rely on spending god knows what on players to last one more round in Europe …. So the Board need to grasp that it is possible for a team that needs to win every week to play to a more flexible formation and that we buy players to play their best positions, rather than Brendan’s approach which was latterly chaotic.

     

     

    HH

  10. I wonder how many Resolutions and questions tomorrow, will get deflected on to the GB and Rodgers

  11. bournesouprecipe on

    GLASSTWOTHIRDSFULL on 20TH NOVEMBER 2025 1:03 PM

     

    Strange that for over a year Trusty was a dud that BR had blown £6m on. Since he left him out of a game we lost he’s become the new Franco Baresi!

     

     

    ————-

     

     

    Good shout mate, very consistent and par for the course for the now defunct Brendan agenda signed a diddy then didn’t develop him. They were slaughtering Trusty when he was in the team and wailed for Barabas.

  12. bournesouprecipe on

    THE BADA BING on 20TH NOVEMBER 2025 1:18 PM

     

    I wonder how many Resolutions and questions tomorrow, will get deflected on to the GB and Rodgers

     

     

    ———————————

     

     

    Clowns to the left of me jokers to the right

     

     

    Gerry Rafferty CSC

  13. MAOLMUIRE O MUIRGHEASA on 20TH NOVEMBER 2025 10:06 AM

     

    Some folk on here, often those whose own professional ambitions might be… modest, project that same small-time mentality onto a global institution.

     

     

     

    They present the trophy haul, accumulated in what is essentially a closed shop, as irrefutable proof of genius.

     

     

     

    It brings to mind a man who successfully sells biros to a local newsagent and believes this has equipped him with the acumen to critique a multinational corporation.

     

     

     

    His ‘solution’ isn’t a plan for growth; it’s a demand for gratitude for the crumbs from a table he’s too shortsighted to even see the end of.

     

     

    ……………………….

     

    Since I first noticed your moniker on here about 5 weeks ago you are rapidly becoming one of my favourite posters on here. Your posts are always well written and perceptive. Keep up the good work. I still can’t pronounce your name though. 🤣

  14. bournesouprecipe on

    THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY on 20TH NOVEMBER 2025 1:58 PM

     

    BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 20TH NOVEMBER 2025 12:19 PM

     

     

     

     

    MadMitch

     

     

    —————————-

     

     

    It’s good, but it’s not right 👍

  15. So heartening to read Celtic supporters dismissing record breaking domestic trophy hauls as “accumulated in what is essentially a closed shop”.

     

     

    Spoiled brats CSC

  16. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Was about to say thank you to both Prestonpans Bhoy and TOSB ..

     

     

     

    … when I noticed BSR’s post.

     

     

    Over to you Bournesouprecipe …..

     

     

    😀

  17. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    If I may ATTEMPT TO bring a bit of balance to the discussion around MOM’S post …

     

     

    … who, like, TOSB, I enjoy reading.

     

     

    If I am reading MOM’s metaphor correctly – surely every domestic league and cup domicile is a closed shop?

     

     

    On those with limited professional ambitions?

     

     

    I’d respectfully suggest outlook rather than ambitions … but MOM may have a point.

     

     

    Flip side to that though, IMHO …

     

     

    … the number of rebels with limited or no experience running a corporate entity

     

     

    … let alone one whose public profile and level of unwelcome attention received is, frankly, disproportionate to the actual size of the enterprise

     

     

    … who think Celtic can blithely tell other stakeholders with whom we have a mandatory and/or symbiotic relationship with

     

     

    . . to just sod off because we don’t like them … as if that achieves anything (!)

     

     

    Is palpable.

  18. Often you’ll find some half decent articles on the CQN magazine section of this website, readable if you have Adblock Plus installed. Today is a wee bit of an exception, there is a story about a Celtic player, Odin Holm which is so lightweight it does not even meet the criteria for the title of “lazy journalism” speculating as it does on his possible return to Lennoxtown. ‘ – ‘Forgotten Celt in Nancy Puzzle’

     

    Thing is someone on here, might have been “back to basics”, “saint stivs” BSR, “deniabhoy” (ie those who do post good links) and apologies for not recollecting exactly who, posted link to an interview with Odin, (The Athletic/Guardian) in which he datailed the nature of the the problems he faced and the treatments he has tried to get to full fitness. It made painful reading, he has, not sure if it is genetic, but certainly vascular which affects his calf muscles by limiting the bloodflow, and leading to major swelling after each and every exertion. Not good for a young footballer. This interview, excruciating as it was, finally gave us an explanation as to why Odin had not made any progress at Celtic, (despite early promise) nor in the USA in the last season or two. Point being whoever wrote the CQN article had obviously never the read “The Athletic ” one available on here not so long ago, one to which the reaction for anyone who read it could only be to wish him well, and hope that there is a permanent solution to what is one of the most complex conditions any footballer can have faced.

  19. What Paul67 does offer today, and we should be very thankful, is a heads up for the waves of “hysteria” that the population will be subjected to in the next 6 months. However, keep the heid and I´ll buy ye a bunnet and scottish football can bring folk the gether ….are we no divided enough?

     

     

    I was a Celtic supporter before a Scotland supporter as it turned out. My Da had been a Rangers supporter, he grew up in Govan so he´s got an excuse and my mother´s brothers were all Celtic supporters from Paisley. As a kid I had kicked about a ball for a couple of years and I discovered Celtic myself on that magic evening in 1967 in front of a television screen. It was when I saw my heroes Bobby Murdoch, Tommy Gemmell, Jimmy Johnstone and Ronnie Simpson playing for Scotland that I began to notice a national team and they were not nearly as successful as Celtic. They only became successful when they had 5 Celtic players in the line up against Czechoslovakia in 1973 to qualify for the world cup for the first time since 1958.

     

     

    But that was a blood and snotters side really with the likes of Holton, Hay ( had to include him as a hard man but Davy was not a dirty player he just got the retaliation in first sometimes I imagine), Bremner and Jordan.

     

    Jimmy Johnstone was in the squad and had excelled against England but the off the field reports and a lack of solidarity from key players I suspect, humiliated Jimmy. Jimmy was too big a man to make anything of it. If he had said anything to the press about not getting the respect he deserved, Celtic would have probably fined him…such was the way Celtic often operated back then. Luckily we defend our own a bit better now.

     

     

    After failing at the World Cup in Germany, Ally McLeod brings on more of the ball players and Dalglish and McGrain flourish. However Ally blows it by sticking with Jordan as his spearhead in Argentina 78 instead of playing in-form Derek Johnstone. As a Celtic supporter I had less than love for Johnstone at the time, but in retrospect he had just had a great season for the huns and had even scored at the warm up games at Hampden weeks previously. In fact even Jock Stein had Jordan in his team as the main striker in Spain 82 and maybe that´s why everybody said that Dalglish never played as well for Scotland as he did for Celtic, because for nearly 10 years Scotland had a bulldog style centre forward that didn´t suit Kenny´s silky skills. Not saying Joe Jordan wasn´t an amazing player but Dalglish could have been world class, had the Scotland managers built the team around him. Fergie did his interim manager bit at Mexico 86 and after that it was the beginning of mediocrity with the suits and the media calling all the shots, in conjunction with the blazers and the burgeoning class of professional football leeches. Aitken, McStay, Collins and Boyd kept my attention but

     

    I was more enthused about Ireland who were becoming a bigger force, enjoying seeing Pat Bonner and Tommy Coyne´s exploits

     

     

    Argentina 78 did a lot of damage to the Scottish psyche. After it was so hyped up it was one failure after another after a disgrace after another on prime time every night. Literally everybody in the world watching this tournament was laughing at us, you could cut the depression in the late summer air in Arbroath…and we deserved it, we walked straight into it…I was at Hampden when we “celebrated¨ getting beat by England at the send off for the team to “win” in Argentina, there was even a helicopter…. which dropped down after the game…. who knows why…… ye never saw a helicopter much those days.,,,ye still don´t really…see what ah mean…… aboot that damage to the scottish psyche….

     

     

    Come on Troy Parrot!

  20. Social media football of the aftermath of the Scotland win is sooooo welcome and heartening

     

     

    Football is amazing and it’s power is awesome.

     

    It’s great to see the pride in Scotland and being Scottish.

     

    Sore heids totally understandable

     

    F@ck politicians, its people that matter.

  21. bournesouprecipe on

    Back to basics

     

     

    Sorry school run there

     

     

    Monika’s 2,500 and counting, of course passed and present. In fairness it’ll also include a fair few Kev Jungle’s 🤣

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