Celtic legend Chris Sutton thinks his former club should seek to postpone the upcoming clash with Rangers if key players are missing on international duty.
The Hoops are scheduled to play their bitter rivals in a mouthwatering showdown on February 2 at Parkhead, with the outcome absolutely crucial to their Premiership campaign.
But manager Ange Postecoglou could be forced to go into the do-or-die fixture without the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Daizen Maeda and Tom Rogic, as Japan, USA and Australia have key World Cup qualifiers in the same week.
A second delay could cause chaos with fixture scheduling later in the season, but speaking exclusively to the Record Celtic Podcast, Sutton said: "Do Celtic want to win the league or not?
"If they do want to win things then they stand a far better chance with their best players in the side.
"They have three big games coming up they can't afford to drop points in and I think they're well within their rights to call the games off.
"Mick [Michael Gannon] made a pertinent point by saying that while Rangers fans might complain about that, I think they called games off when they were in Division Three, didn't they, playing against the likes of Cowdenbeath, Forfar, or whoever else, when Ally McCoist was manager, so there can't be complaints from the other side.
"Celtic have to do what's right for them."
Rangers postponed a League One fixture against Forfar in 2013 after four of their players received international call-ups.
Celtic restart their season following the winter break on Monday night at home to Hibs, before travelling to Alloa in the Scottish Cup on January 22.
