Celtic captain McGregor suffers ‘significant’ facial injury

Ange Postecoglou revealed captain Callum McGregor picked up a “significant” facial injury in Celtic’s 2-1 Scottish Cup win against Alloa.

It is more bad news for the Hoops, who are already without Kyogo Furuhashi, Tom Rogic and Daizen Maeda for the Old Firm game against Rangers on February 2, live on Sky Sports Football.

Goalscorer Liel Abada and Yosuke Ideguchi also had to go off with injuries ahead of those crucial games against Hearts, Dundee United and Rangers, but it was McGregor who caused the Hoops boss the most concern.

“Liel and Yosuke should be OK, Cal’s a significant injury,” said 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 short-term, 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 more than anything else.”

With Furuhashi out injured and Maeda set to go on international duty with Japan, Postecoglou was pleased to see Giorgos Giakoumakis, who has struggled to make an impact at the Parkhead club since signing from VVV-Venlo last summer, get on the scoresheet.

He said: “It was good for him to get a goal. Obviously he hasn’t played much and it was good for him to get 90 minutes and he is going to improve on that.

“At the same time getting a goal is important for strikers and he will improve.”

Celtic’s growing absentee list leaves Giakoumakis as Celtic’s only fit and available striker for the games against Hearts, Dundee United and Rangers.