manager: it's non-contact training at lennoxtown

[kevin67]

GORDON STRACHAN has revealed he’s wrapped his Celtic stars in cotton wool this week in a bid to ensure there are no more unwelcome additions to the club’s lengthy injury list.

On Saturday evening, the manager had an entire team on the treatment table, with 11 senior players suffering from a variety of injuries and ailments.

Tomorrow night (Wednesday, November 12), Celtic face Kilmarnock in the SPL - their eighth match in the space of four weeks - and the manager is praying that he has no further fitness problems ahead of that fixture.

“We have tried our hardest to make the training non-contact this week,” he said. “That’s because we have so many players out injured.

“Having non-contact training isn’t that unusual. You can do crossing, shooting and passing without any pressure. You can also do a lot of work on technique.

"There is a lot you can do without contact. We are keeping them fit and the energy levels of the boys aren’t a problem. The games are keeping them going, but we have to rest them and make sure they are fit.

“Injury-wise, this is the worst it’s been since I’ve been here. But I need to say that I’ve walked into this press conference and not brought it up. People keep bringing it up. I answer questions that I’m asked and I’ve tried not to bring the injuries up over the last few weeks. If someone brings the topic up, I’ll answer the questions but I don’t want to dwell on it. It’s not fair on the players coming in.”

On a positive note, injured trio Glenn Loovens, Shunsuke Nakamura and Georgios Samaras are all back in training, but the manager will look carefully at them before deciding when they are ready to return.

He said: “They have done a bit of training but we’ll have a look at them. They have only had one day of work and we need to get them training in a match situation. Naka is the same. They have trained gingerly and we’ll see how they are.”

Celtic have already beaten Kilmarnock 3-1 twice this season, but the manager believes those wins won’t have any bearing on Wednesday’s match.

“It’s another game and another team that we have to beat,” he said. “It’s a team coming to cause us problems and we’ll do our homework on them. Fortunately, we’ve already played them a few times this season and that helps.

“We’ve been doing bits and bobs today to help us out on Wednesday and we’re looking forward to it. Hopefully, it will be a good game.”

Celtic’s last visit to Rugby Park was a fiercely competitive match, with Nakamura on the receiving end of some robust challenges in the first half. However, the manager reiterated that he has no problem with hard tackling.

He said: “I’ve said before that part of your job as a footballer is to take a tackle. If you’re small and skilful, sometimes you can get injured but you have to be prepared to take a tackle.

“I have no problem with that. After the last Killie game, I said we took a few hard tackles. At no time did I say they were illegal.

“They were hard tackles, which you expect. I tell my players to deal with it and if the tackles are illegal, I expect the referee to look after it. My view hasn’t changed. For over 100 years, people have been taking hard tackles.”