Brendan Rodgers has confirmed that Moussa Dembele is in contention to make his first domestic appearance of the season on Saturday when Celtic face Ross County at Parkhead.
Dembele, 21, has not played since the July clashes with Linfield in the Champions League with a hamstring injury, but he is now in line to make his return this weekend.
In a second major boost for the Bhoys, Rodgers has announced that Dedryck Boyata is returning to full fitness having not played at all since in the end of last season in a competitive fixture.
The Belgian centre-back has had a serious knee injury and although it is doubtful he will play against Ross County, it’s likely that he will be involved as he is set for a fitness test over the course of the next day.
“Moussa looks good. He’s been training now for a few weeks. He’ll be in the squad,” said Rodgers, as quoted by the Hoops’ official Twitter account on Thursday afternoon.
He then added: “We’ll assess over the next 24 hours whether he’s [Boyata] going to be available or not.”
? BR on @MDembele_10: "Moussa looks good. He’s been training now for a few weeks. He’ll be in the squad."
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) September 14, 2017
? BR on Dedryck Boyata: "We’ll assess over the next 24 hours whether he’s going to be available or not."
More soon online and on @CelticTV.
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) September 14, 2017
OPINION
It’s massive for Celtic to have this duo back, but if anything Boyata’s return is a lot more needed than Dembele’s, even though the Frenchman was in such good form last season. Leigh Griffiths can keep up his stellar job in attack but Celtic are struggling to make up the numbers in the centre of defence and it’s fair to assume that their battering against PSG on Tuesday wouldn’t have been as bad if with the Belgian or Erik Sviatchenko was fit to play. This is great news for the Bhoys though, who will want to keep their unbeaten run intact this weekend.