Postecoglou provides Celtic injury update as Jullien nears return

Celtic had been struggling with a number of fitness issues with Jota, David Turnbull, Joe Hart, Kyogo Furuhashi, James Forrest and Giorgos Giakoumakis among those sidelined.

But Postecoglou is hopeful some returning stars will be helped along by new Japanese recruits Daizen maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi who signed as the transfer window opened in January.

Discussing injury worries on Celtic TV, Postecoglou said: “They’re all at different stages of recovery but all progressing really well. 

“Again, part of the reason for wanting to get the three lads in early from Japan was the one thing that was fairly evident was we didn’t have the depth we needed and the quality to be able to rotate our team and I think we suffered because of that.

“Quite a few of the players were carrying more of a load because we didn’t have alternatives – so they are all at different stages of recovery but we expect the majority to be up and running and available when the season restarts.

“Hopefully we’ll have the depth now to be able to cope, as it’s still going to be a very busy period for us.”

One player who is back in training after a lengthy spell out following a nightmare injury blow is Christopher Jullien.

And Postecoglou is planning to give Jullien some minutes in the coming weeks as he hopes for a successful return to the first-team for the Frenchman.

He said: “Chris has worked awfully hard and it’s always difficult with those  long-term ones because there is no real sort of predetermined end date.

“But as you said, he’s training and he’s training well. Over the next couple of weeks we’ll get him involved in terms of playing some football and see where he’s at. Hopefully he hits the ground running and can help us on our course.”