CELTS HIT BY ‘SIGNIFICANT’ McGREGOR INJURY BLOW

CELTIC captain Callum McGregor faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering a nasty facial injury in his team’s Scottish Cup win at Alloa last night.

Manager Ange Postecoglou immediately ruled the midfielder out of Wednesday’s Premiership trip to Hearts but the 28-year-old also seems certain to miss the forthcoming top-of-the-table clash against Rangers on February 2.

Having used the winter break to nurse many of his injured players back to health, Postecoglou watched another two limp off during the 2-1 win at the Indodrill Stadium — but confirmed that both goalscorer Liel Abada and new signing Yosuke Ideguchi ‘should be okay’.

The prognosis on McGregor, who took the brunt of a firsthalf midfield challenge with opponent Adam King on the left side of his face, is graver.

‘Cal’s is a significant injury,’ said Postecoglou. ‘It’s a facial

injury don’t know exactly what it is, but he’s not in great shape. It’s not going to be short-term.’

A mainstay of the team stretching back several years, McGregor will be missed as Celtic attempt to eat into Rangers’ four-point lead at the top of the Premiership table.

He’s also a key player for Scotland boss Steve Clarke, who faces a World Cup play-off against Ukraine in March.

Reluctant to expand on the specifics of the injury, Postecoglou added: ‘Cal’s a very important player, not just for what he contributes as a footballer but as a person. I am gutted for him.

‘We have a game Wednesday night, you guys can talk about the fictitious future that might arise, but Wednesday’s game is all we are focused on and he won’t play, which is a blow. It’s a significant injury.’ Although McGregor was able to make his own way off the artificial pitch, it was McGregor’s team-mate Tom Rogic and not referee Don Robertson who ushered the club’s medical staff on to administer treatment.

‘From what I understand, he wasn’t in great shape,’ observed Postecoglou.

With Rogic and Daizen Maeda now off on international duty and Kyogo Furuhashi still injured, Postecoglou’s squad is under renewed pressure.

The SPFL allows for clubs to request postponements if three or more players are absent on international duty but with only Rogic and Maeda called up, the Australian has no choice but to carry on.

He said: ‘That’s been our season. There’s not been a weekend where I have everyone available, maybe it’s still to come.’

The absence of Maeda and Kyogo will present Giorgos Giakoumakis, scorer of Celtic’s first goal in last night’s victory, a chance to make his mark at centre-forward.

‘It was good for him to get a goal,’ said the manager. ‘He hasn’t played much, so it was good he got 90 minutes. He needed that.

‘The main thing in cup competitions is to progress and we did that.

‘We could have made it easier for ourselves by killing the game in the first half.’

Proud of how his part-time players performed, Alloa boss Barry Ferguson admits they must now convert that performance into some improved league form.

His team have not won a League One match since October 30 and are under threat of a second successive relegation.

‘It needs to be a spark for us,’ said the former Rangers skipper.