Celtic do not have the deepest squad at this point of time. There is no denying that fact. As a result, we have seen Ange Postecoglou struggle for options on multiple occasions already when a few of the stars went down injured earlier in the campaign.

Fortunately, there has been a lot of good news on the injury front recently. Kyogo, Callum McGregor, Josip Juranovic, Mikey Johnston and Giorgos Giakoumakis have all made their returns ton the pitch. While Christopher Jullien and James Forrest appear to be closing in on fitness as well and might be available in the near future.

Thus, Postecoglou has a lot more options available to him now than he did a few weeks back, when he had very little scope for team rotation.

We saw Liel Abada drop to the bench in the game against St Johnstone with Giakoumakis making his first start and Kyogo playing on the wing. Postecoglou has explained that it was to give the youngster some rest. While speaking on Celtic’s Official YouTube channel and as reported by 67 Hail Hail, the manager said:

“It was always my concern [overplaying him]. Obviously, we just kept putting him out there and to his credit, he gives everything every game. But as you said, he’s 19 years old and when we signed him I didn’t think he would play this much initially.

“We had James Forrest who could play there but then James has had his own issues. We lost Mikey [Johnston], so we’ve been limited in the players we’ve been able to play.

“I think it was important the first opportunity we got just to give Liel a bit of a rest. Sort of freshen him up mentally and physically and take a little bit of the pressure off of him which he’s carried really well. It’s great just to give him a little bit of a spell and then he’ll be ready to go.”

Abada has played constant football for Celtic ever since coming in this summer

When Abada arrived, there were a lot of expectations surrounding him. But not many would have expected him to come in and play non-stop football for the Celtic first-team immediately.

It was just earlier this month that he turned 20 years of age and considering that, he has done tremendously well for the Hoops till now.

He is certainly someone who can play a huge role in this team for years to come. But in recent weeks, it had looked like Abada was fading away a bit which is completely understandable considering the amount of football that he has had to play since coming in. Thus, the rest against St Johnstone, although he did come in as a substitute, must have done him the world of good.

This article was originally posted here