Salzburg v Celtic, Thursday, 6pm
Celtic have several key players missing for their opening Europa League clash with Salzburg in Austria on Thursday night.
Stand-in captain Charlie Mulgrew is out with a knee injury while winger James Forrest remains sidelined with a hamstring injury. In defence, Mikael Lustig is out with groin injury, Adam Matthews is missing with a calf injury while new loan signing from Manchester City John Guidetti has to drop out as he was not registered in time.
Assistant manager John Collins is glad to see the return of skipper Scott Brown, who made his first appearance of the season against Aberdeen after recovering from a hamstring injury.
“It is great to have him back,” he said. “Anyone who was at the game on Saturday or watched it on television (would see that) he brings so much experience, legs, power, skill and drives other players forward. It is like having two or three players back when Scott is back in the park.”
The former Celtic midfielder is looking for the Hoops to go all the way in the competition after being knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers.
“I want to get to the final and win and if you ask the same question to the players I am sure they will give you the same answer. There are a lot of good teams in the tournament but we will give it our best shot. We don’t have a point to prove but we want to improve.
“We are all bitterly disappointed that we didn’t qualify for the Champions League but you move on to the next challenge and the next challenge is Salzburg. It is a good challenge for us but we are confident of getting a result. I don’t think a draw would be a bad result. We will have all the teams back at Celtic Park but we want to win every game.”
Collins has no worries over Aleksandar Tonev’s mindset despite allegations he racially abused Aberdeen’s Shay Logan at the weekend.
Scottish FA compliance officer Vincent Lunny is looking into the claims made by the Dons full-back during Saturday’s Premiership fixture at Celtic Park, which the home side won 2-1 to register their first win in five games.
Afterwards a Celtic spokesman said: “We have spoken to the player and he has stated that the accusation made is not true.”
Speaking at Glasgow Airport before the Scottish champions flew out to Austria, Hoops’ assistant Collins said: “He will be fine for the game. The club has made a statement and so we will move forward.”
Provisional squad: Gordon, Izaguirre, Denayer, Ambrose, Van Dijk, Kayal, Johansen, Bitton, Brown, Commons, Berget, Scepovic, Boerrigter, Wakaso, McGregor, Griffiths, Stokes, Henderson, Zaluska.
