Celtic injuries, absences, team news and Predicted XI for big trip to Hearts

Celtic supporters can look forward to an exciting Sunday of Scottish Premiership action as Brendan Rodgers’ Bhoys travel to face Hearts at Tynecastle.

This is a fixture that always stands out in the calendar and after a positive week of back-to-back victories, there’s even the chance to go back to the top of the league table.

Rangers’ defeat to Motherwell at Ibrox earlier on Saturday has opened the door for Celtic to make a big title race statement.

A win will move the reigning champions one point ahead of Philippe Clement’s team.

Celtic team news vs Hearts
The big injury news in the build-up to the Edinburgh trip concerns captain Callum McGregor.

He was substituted off in the thumping win over Dundee on Wednesday night.

Rodgers has since explained he felt an issue with his calf and Achilles.

Understandably no risks were taken with Celtic in such a commanding position on the night.

However, he also missed training on Friday and the manager has declared him a doubt for Sunday’s match.

Given that the Celtic boss was also talking up alternative options, it seems more likely than not he’ll be missing for this one.

Elsewhere, Maik Nawrocki remains absent with a hamstring injury and Reo Hatate is still rehabilitating from the injury suffered on international duty with Japan.

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There’s also no change in the status of Liel Abada, who has been pulled out of playing action by the manager.

Potential Celtic XI for Tynecastle match

Joe Hart will continue in goal with Celtic with Brendan Rodgers set to address the goalkeeping position in the summer after the Englishman’s retirement.

Alistair Johnston will likely feature on the right side of defence, with Greg Taylor on the opposite flank.

Centrally, Cameron Carter-Vickers could complete his first 90 minutes since December after increasing his playing time through the week. He’s most likely to partner Liam Scales.

In midfield, Tomoki Iwata is set to continue his role as an anchor, allowing two others to play more freely further forward. Matt O’Riley is almost guaranteed to be one of those.

Who the other option is, is up for debate. Daniel Kelly came into the match mid-week for McGregor but throwing him into a high-tempo game at Tynecastle may be too much for his first senior start.

More likely it’s Paulo Bernardo who comes into the eleven if the captain misses out.

Rodgers won’t want to change his attacking three from Wednesday too much so we could well see Daizen Maeda, Hyunjun Yang and Adam Idah again get the nod after good contributions.

That would leave Luis Palma, Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn ready to come into the game off the bench if required in the second half.

Your Predicted XI in full is: Hart, Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor, Iwata, O’Riley, Bernardo, Yang, Maeda, Idah.

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