MCGREGOR BLOW FOR BOSS ANGE

CELTIC are sweating over a long-term lay-off for captain Callum Mcgregor after he suffered a ‘significant’ facial injury in Celtic’s Scottish Cup win against Alloa last night.

With the visitors leading through a Giorgos Giakoumakis strike the Scotland midfielder had to be replaced by James Mccarthy just before the break following a clash with Adam King.

Liel Abada added a second for the Hoops before Conor Sammon pulled a goal back in the second half for the Wasps and although Abada and Yosuke Ideguchi had to go off with injuries and with crucial games against Hearts, Dundee United and Rangers coming up, it was Mcgregor who caused the Hoops boss the most concern.

“Liel and Yosuke should be OK, Cal’s a significant injury,” said Bhoys boss Postecoglou, whose side were drawn at home to Raith Rovers in the next round

“It’s a facial injury, I don’t know what it is but he’s not a great shape. It’s not going to be shortterm, it looked quite significant.

“It’s been that sort of season. We have just had challenge after challenge and what we’ve done so far is just get on with it. “He’s a very important player, not just for what he contributes as a footballer but as a person. I am gutted for him.” Postecoglou insists his side should have secured a more convincing win over the part-time side. He said: “The main thing in cup competitions is to progress and we did that. We created enough opportunities to make it a more comfortable victory. It was a difficult pitch for the way we play. We had quite a few guys getting their first significant game time for a while. “With all that in mind, it was OK. There’s some mitigating factors so I can’t be too hard on the players.”