Ange Postecoglou has revealed Celtic captain Callum McGregor is back fit for the Scottish Premiership return against Aberdeen, live on Sky Sports.
The influential midfielder has been out since October after injuring his knee in their Champions League defeat to RB Leipzig in Germany.
Postecoglou is delighted to have his skipper back as he looks to start the second part of the season even stronger.
“He’s ready to go and he’ll play,” the manager told Sky Sports News.
“To be fair to the lads they did really well covering his absence, both on the field and off the field because he’s such a massive influence.
“There’s no doubt he’s very important to us and that’s one of the reasons I feel we’ll be stronger now because he’s back in the fold. We don’t really have too many key injuries now so we should be strong.”
Celtic will also have World Cup trio Cameron Carter-Vickers, Daizen Maeda and Aaron Mooy available for the match.
“We gave all the boys at the World Cup from their finish date a week off, so they literally had the same time off as everyone else,” Postecoglou added.
“That was more to just get away from football for seven days.
“Looking at them they’ve all come back in feeling good about themselves but also physically looking like they’re in good condition.”
Saturday 17th December 12:00pm
Kick off 12:30pm
Celtic know a win at Pittodrie will restore their nine-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership after Rangers’ 3-2 win over Hibernian on Thursday night.
They have only lost once in the league this season and Postecoglou wants standards to continue to rise.
“It’ll be good to get started again. It was a really hectic period heading into the break,” the Australian said.
Josip Juranovic is the only Celtic player still on World Cup duty with Croatia
“Obviously we had Champions League as well so it felt like we had to get everything we could out of it and our league form was perfect running through that.
“We want to build on that. We don’t want to pick up where we left off, we want to be in a more advanced position. That will start Saturday.
“Aberdeen will be a good test for us. They’re going really well this year, particularly at home, I think it should be a good game.”
Haksabanovic wins monthly award
Celtic’s Sead Haksabanovic is the Scottish Premiership’s player of the month for November
Sead Haksabanovic has won the Scottish Premiership player of the month award for November.
The Montenegro international, who signed from Rubin Kazan during the summer transfer window, scored three times last month as Celtic continued their dominance.
The 23-year-old has played 17 times for Postecoglou’s side, including featuring in all six Champions League group-stage matches.
