Forrest’s injury gives Hoops a big Cup tie headache
James Forrest is an injury doubt for Celtic’s Scottish Cup clash with Rangers next weekend, John Kennedy last night admitted.
The Hoops winger was substituted an hour into his side’s 6-0 win over Livingston, his first league start since September.
And while interim boss Kennedy insisted it was a precautionary measure, he was not able to give the player the all clear either.
“We are not quite sure about James yet, we will have to assess him in the week,” he said.
“He kind of stiffened up around his back and hamstrings and stuff around the start of the second half so it was a case of our not wanting to take any risk with him. “Hopefully we got him off quickly enough.
“It is a different area from the one he has had issue with (he was rehabilitating after ankle surgery) and with players coming back after so long you do get niggles and stiffness which can be just a day or two in passing.
“The scoreline allowed us to make the substitutions as well, to take players off and give us some other boys game time.
“All in all, it was a top performance and now it is all about preparing for the Rangers game. “We know if we are on our A-game we can cause them huge problems so it is a good way to build up to it.
“Now, we can hopefully take that into next week and win that game.” By contrast, Livingston manager David Martindale had little reason for cheer, having watched his team comprehensively dismantled.
“I am disappointed. I was angry after the game and in the changing room, now I’m disappointed,” he said.
“I felt there was an acceptance out there, we accepted that and that is not what I want from my players.
“We need to work on that.
“On the flip side and I am not trying to sugar coat it, I thought Celtic were fantastic today. “Obviously we allowed Celtic to be fantastic but I do think they popped the ball really well. “There was a hunger and appetite with Celtic with the way they moved the ball, I have not seen for a while
“They looked like a team who were playing for the manager – if John has any chance of the job that will have done him the world of good. “I think you can see the players were playing for John and they were enjoying it. “Obviously we made it that bit easier, I don’t think we were anywhere near it after half an hour. “We didn’t get close enough to Celtic players.”