Celtic Faces Fitness Concerns Ahead of Old Firm Derby

Celtic will spend the hours before Sunday’s Old Firm derby counting bruises as much as tactics, with Martin O’Neill waiting on fitness updates after Thursday night’s Europa League defeat at Celtic Park.

The Celtic manager confirmed his players were put through a light recovery session on Friday, with the focus on those who carried the heaviest workload in Europe and those who failed to finish the match.

“The players are just a bit of a warm-down today, the lads who played most of the game, so we’ll see how they are,” O’Neill said. “There’s one or two lads who came off; we’ll have a look to see how they are tomorrow.”

The medical team will now dictate much of O’Neill’s selection for Sunday. Those who featured heavily were restricted to warm-down work, with staff assessing whether any knocks are serious enough to force changes for the visit of Rangers.

The concern is sharpest around the “one or two” who were forced off before the final whistle on Thursday. Their condition, and how they respond over the next 48 hours, will shape Celtic’s line-up in what is already a high-stakes Premiership encounter.

The schedule offers no mercy. Celtic face a brutal turnaround from European disappointment to derby intensity, with O’Neill given minimal time on the training ground before the second Old Firm meeting of the season.

Rangers arrive with the psychological edge, having swept Celtic aside 3-0 last weekend. Now O’Neill must find a response, patching up his squad and somehow sharpening their mindset, with the margin for error shrinking by the day.