Time for an inquest into fragile Celtic limbs

One of the things Neil Lennon may have on his agenda for the international break is an inquest into the physical condition of his playing squad.  The season is a month old and Celtic have an injury list which would wipe out pretty much every other team in the country.  If this was an isolated occurrence it would be no more than curious but we have written about, and discussed, the fragile limbs of Celtic players since the Lennoxtown Training Centre opened nearly five years ago.

Since then Celtic ‘lost’ (more on that at a later date) three leagues by a maximum of six points and lost valuable form and points due to first choice players sitting in the stands on match day.

On Saturday our central midfield was without Ledley, Brown, Wanyama, Kayal and McGeouch (on a non-fitness related injury), while even auxiliary stand-in for central mid, Charlie Mulgrew, was on the list of others getting treatment.

The run of bad luck has moved clearly into the realms of statistical relevance.  It is not luck at all, we are doing something wrong.

Football clubs look to sports science to deliver multiple objectives.  Competitive pressure is put on players to become faster and to be able to run as effectively late in games as they can in the opening minutes (which for now is a physical impossibility but remains a key target), but we are clearly missing a trick.