Ange Postecoglou admits Celtic could be without key players Kyogo Furuhashi and Tom Rogic for their rearranged clash with Rangers in February, but insists he won’t have the violin out over it.
The Hoops boss lamented his side’s failure to get past Covid hit St Mirren in Paisley on Wednesday night but he won’t complain about the winter shutdown forcing a new Rangers date.
The Glasgow pair will now collide on February 2 – when Kyogo and Rogic are due to be away on international duty with Japan and Australia - but the former could be spared amid strict guidelines in Japan, reports The Daily Record.
But Postecoglou said: "If they get called up they will be.
"There is a lot of violin playing around the place, we are not going to be one of them.”
Postecoglou backed the decision to shut down from St Stephen's Day after Scottish government chiefs ordered crowds to be slashed amid the Omicron surge.
He said: “I am very supportive of our club's stance. It makes sense to me to use the natural break.
"I have said all along that fans are an integral part of this game.
"If having that break gives us a chance, without guarantees, to get them back in it's much better.
"I don't like playing closed doors - fans are an important part home and away."
Celtic had huge backing in Paisley – but couldn’t find a way past Jim Goodwin’s men.
Saints had 11 players out with Covid and Posteocoglou said: “We should have won the game.
"We created enough chances and we dominated but we lacked quality in the final third to finish them off.
"It wasn't a night when everything went right for St Mirren because we did a lot wrong.
"It wasn't all good defending, it was also our own finishing.
"We had enough chances to win a few games. If you don't take them, that's what you get.
"It's not down to personnel. We had good chances for the guys out there to take them.
"We should have won and if we'd more composure and people had been stronger in their intent, we would have done.”
Celtic were also missing 11 first team players on the back of Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup Final win and Postecoglou admitted he needs January reinforcements.
He said: “Look, that’s been evident for a long time now, that we need a stronger squad.
“That’s not just tonight. That’s not why we didn’t win tonight, we should have won tonight, we had enough of the ball, we had enough possession, we had enough chances, irrespective of all the other factors.
“Even if we hadn’t won tonight it doesn’t stop the fact that at the moment we have got 11 guys who are injured.
“Any squad would have been challenged by that.
“But for me I still think we haven’t had enough quality in the squad to be able to rotate players through a heavy schedule.
“That isn’t surprising. It was always going to take more than one window to get the squad we wanted. That is logical.”
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