Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou says he has options to cover Carl Starfelt

The defender will be out until after the international break with a hamstring injury.

Carl Starfelt
Author: Alison ConroyPublished 3rd Nov 2021

Ange Postecoglou has confirmed Celtic defender Carl Starfelt will be out until after the international break with a hamstring injury.

The Sweden international pulled up during the goalless cinch Premiership game against Livingston at Parkhead on Saturday.

Ahead of the Europa League clash against Ferencvaros in Hungary on Thursday night, which precedes the weekend match against Dundee at Dens Park, Postecoglou said: We lost Carl Starfelt in the last game and similar sort of timeline to Tommy (Rogic) I suppose, we are hoping he will be back after the international break, but he will definitely miss these two games.

"It is always a blow when you lose players to injury. To be fair to Carl, he has played every game since he got here and it's not surprising that he has something like this happen.

"We would have loved to have rotated him earlier, but we tried to build some cohesion, consistency in the back four and we didn't want to chop and change too much because we had to at the start of the season.''

Starfelt’s injury means a decision will have to be made about who partners Cameron Carter-Vickers at the back but Postecoglou says he has players that can step in, with Stephen Welsh and Nir Bitton all possibilities.

“We have options,” the Celtic boss said. “Welshy has been raring to go and has been unfortunate not to get an opportunity to play, because whenever he has played he has been very good for us and Nir can slip back there as well so there are options.”