Injury Burden Eases for Run In

In his latest Celtic TV interview, Postecoglou makes it clear this is the final run in, and there is a mixed approach to players’ fitness regimes before the next match.

Some are on international duty, some remaining at Celtic have been granted some down time and family time, and some are hard at it on the training ground during that first week. Second week is all about match preparation.

This balanced approach is, of course, sensible and indicative of recognising that each player is an individual with unique needs in terms of where they are in their recovery, fitness and conditioning AND mental wellbeing.

I have been highly critical of Celtic’s approach to managing players’ injury risks, and the hamstring injuries to Turnbull and Furuhashi that removed both for 17 and 24 matches respectively, were surely signposted in the medical data.

Likely any changes to approach on the club will take time, which is normal.

It seems Celtic will enter the defining nine-match (hopefully) stretch with, remarkably, a fully fit squad to choose from.

Given the season Celtic have had in terms of squad overhaul and injury, that is remarkable.

Celtic have named 46 different players in match day squads.

As we enter this most crucial period, has this season been an outlier in terms of injury?

Games Lost to Injury

I track each match a player is unavailable through injury. This includes recovery time. That is, the period ends when they are fit enough to be available for selection.

Here is the volume of matches lost (one instance = 1 match missed by 1 player) for the seasons I have data for:

This season is the second worst for number of matches lost to injury after the Rodgers/Lennon 18/19 season. I wrote at the time this followed a trend with Rodgers at Liverpool of injury increasing over time within the squads he manages.

With Postecoglou, there has been the increase in intensity of training, of match play, and of new players adapting to new weather, environment, pitches and support staff.

Players Unavailable Per Match

Obviously, we play different numbers of games each season so how does this translate into number of players unavailable per match?

Earlier in the season, Celtic were way over 6 players being unavailable per match on average.

As we get to the end of the season, this has reduced to 5.75 over the 51 matches played so far.

I have seen many comments from experienced Postecoglou watchers that he deliberately set up his teams in Australia to peak physically for the end of the season when the play offs and Grand Final were due to be played.

So, is the improvement on where we were in January down to fitness by design or just pure luck?

I honestly do not know.

But if we have both Furuhashi and Turnbull on the bench at Ibrox with no other injury absentees then strap in for a thrilling last 8/9 matches.