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WHEN WILL CALLUM MCGREGOR AND REO HATATE RETURN FROM INJURY?

This season has presented many different challenges to Brendan Rodgers that he perhaps may not have been expecting when he arrived for a second spell at the Champions.


Transfers have been lacklustre, similar to some of the signings in Rodgers' first spell at the club, which has led many to believe there were some false promises declared to the invincible treble winning boss.


However, arguably one of the biggest problems Celtic had had to contend with this season has been injuries. 


Every football team get's injuries, it's only natural, but Brendan Rodgers hasn't been able to field his strongest possible starting eleven for a string of games at any point this season.


Players who were centre-point's of Ange Postecoglou's side such as Reo Hatate and Cameron Carter-Vickers have had season's plagued with injuries, with Hatate in particular featuring a measly 11 times for the Hoops this season.


The injuries haven't stopped, with another bout of injuries hitting the Celtic squad, with captain Callum McGregor proving to be arguably the biggest miss of them all.


With the title race draw ever closer, when can Celtic expect a boost with the return of some of their stars from injury?





Callum McGregor

The captain picked up an achilles injury in the mid-week 7-1 victory over Dundee, an injury that has since seen Callum McGregor miss the defeat at Tynecastle in the following fixture as well as the Scottish Cup quarter-final clash with Livingston at the weekend.


Rumours have been flying on social media suggesting that he could be out for the season, with Brendan Rodgers stating ahead of last weekend's fixture that the scan on the injury was inconclusive.


Brendan Rodgers has since indicated that we may expect to see Callum McGregor back from injury after the international break, with the captain set to miss Scotland's fixtures against Netherlands and Northern Ireland.


Naturally, the manager will have to manage his recovery period carefully to avoid any potential aggravation to the injury much like what has happened to Carter-Vickers over the course of this season.





Reo Hatate

As previously mentioned, the Japanese midfielder's season hasn't really got going due to a plethora of injury issues to his calves that have disrupted his campaign under the new manager.


He suffered an injury against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League group stage and he hasn't been able to regain full fitness ever since suffering another injury in Qatar at the Asian Cup just a matter of weeks after recovering from the injury against Atleti.


Speaking to the media, Rodgers explained that he will hopefully have Reo Hatate back in training before the commencement of the international break, which would be at some point this week, but there aren't any chances of seeing him feature in this weekend's visit of St Johnstone to Parkhead.


Having someone of the quality of Reo Hatate in the team for the trip to Ibrox in less than a month's time will be massively important, and it will be incredibly beneficial if Celtic can have him back in the team for the first game after the international break, a trip to Almondvale to face Livingston.




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