Regardless of how Celtic end this season, the post-mortem will point to myriad self-inflicted wounds. But one blemish partly beyond the club's control is the sheer proportion of players who have been unavailable through injury over the past 12 months.
Combined, the key trio of Jota, Alistair Johnston, and Cameron Carter-Vickers have spent 677 days on the sidelines. Precisely 56 games have passed since they were all last available.
Right-back Julian Araujo has missed the past five matches, having returned to his parent club, Bournemouth, for muscle treatment.
Callum Osmand required surgery for a hamstring tear last November and has yet to fully recover.
While Arne Engels is on the verge of returning, a thigh injury sustained against Livingston on February 11 ruled him out of Celtic’s following 10 matches.
Kelechi Iheanacho – who scored the all-important winner at Dens Park on Sunday – has suffered his fair share of travails, failing to reach full fitness throughout the season amid a series of hamstring issues.
A shoulder problem has plagued all-but-retired goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel for over a year, too.
Long-term injuries are growing in abundance as modern football’s ever-increasing schedule takes its toll.
If Celtic had their full quota of players available throughout the season, they probably wouldn’t be in a title race.
Instead, Jota’s anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, coupled with the hamstring problems encountered by Johnston, Osmand, and Iheanacho, not to mention Carter-Vickers’ Achilles’ tendon rupture, means a three-way fight for the league championship could go to the wire.
“The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and the hamstring injuries are difficult because they're the ones that last the most amount of time for recovery,” Daniel Biggs, a lecturer in sports therapy at UHI Perth and first-team physiotherapist for SPFL League One side Kelty Hearts, tells The Celtic Way.
“An ACL could be nine to 11 months, and so you're working with all that time at different stages and you've got to make sure at each stage the player's right and ready to move into the next stage of recovery.
“There’s that false sense of confidence. And so, it might be around the nine-month mark, the player's feeling like, ‘Yeah, I'm back, I don't want that extra two months, I'm ready to go’.
“But if we're sensible and the manager backs the medical team on that, give them the extra two months to fine-tune the muscle and around that area, then they'll make for a stronger return for when they do.
“But it can be quite easy just to say, ‘OK, this person's back, let's get them in the squad’, whereas actually they've just rushed that last bit of rehab for whatever reason and they've got the setback from there.”
Read more:
Said setbacks have been all too common for Celtic. Johnston initially suffered a hamstring injury against Kairat Almaty on August 20.
He returned nine weeks later in a Europa League tie with Sturm Graz and the same issue flared up within 26 minutes. The right-back has not played since.
Similarly, Iheanacho, having injured his hamstring in that Sturm Graz match, returned seven-and-a-half weeks later, starting the Premier Sports Cup final versus St Mirren on December 14.
He had to come off on 35 minutes, clutching the back of his right leg again.
Tim Williamson has been Celtic’s head of physiotherapy and medical services since 2008. He is not a qualified doctor, but that is not uncommon in the Scottish top flight.
Still, some players are understood to have sought medical advice from outside the club.
Engels recently returned to Belgium to see a specialist for his thigh injury, and the initial stages of Jota’s ACL rehabilitation took place in Portugal.
A number of years ago, a sprint coach worked closely with James Forrest to alter the way he runs after a series of muscle problems.
Although players might seek external help, the manager must be fully on board with his medical team.
“It's a big thing and it shouldn't be overlooked,” Biggs adds. “You need your manager to back your medical team and not try and make their own assessments too early to say, ‘Oh no, he looks fine, let's get him back in’.
“But actually trust your medical team and give them the opportunity to really say, ‘No, we need to give this guy another two or three weeks’, which doesn't always happen because there might be other injuries within the squad and there might be different tactics coming in for that game. So it is key, it is vital.
“But also at the same time, it's important to have a relationship with the manager where trust can come through from both sides and not think that my opinion doesn't matter and the manager will just go over my head, talk to the player and then make a decision between the manager and the player and just bypass the medical team.”
‘There are tears, there is frustration’
The physical toll a long-term injury takes on a player is apparent. But the mental strain involved often goes unnoticed.
Iheanacho recently spoke openly about his feelings when he was on the sidelines, saying: “Obviously, when you're injured as a player, it's really difficult. Sometimes you could put your head down and all that.
“Obviously, you support your team, but it's really sad sometimes not getting on the pitch, contributing to the club that signed you.
“So it's really sad sometimes. But you just need to keep going and work hard to get your rehab done and get ready to come back stronger to help the team."
Johnston shares such exasperation. “It’s come a long way but again I’ve learned through the hard way that a hamstring is a really finicky injury,” the Canadian said over the international break.
“All it takes is one wrong step and it can just go again. And that’s the frustrating part with muscles.”
“It's a big mental challenge as well for the player,” says Biggs. “They're out for nine to 11 months with something that they love, something that earns them money, it's their living.
“And so it can be a really tough psychological challenge for the player as well.
“So, yeah, there are tears, there is frustration that happens within the physio room throughout those nine to 11 months.
“It's great that we're trained to deal with the physical injuries, but also we need to be aware that there is a huge psychological aspect that comes with these big injuries.
“Some players say, ‘That's enough, I want to drop down a couple of leagues where if I get injured, it's not the be-all, end-all’.
“And when they go back on the pitch, they're thinking, ‘Am I going to have the same injury happen again?’
“And so it's in the back of their mind that they're thinking, ‘I'm going to get injured again’, rather than having the whole focus on the game.
“So, yeah, there is the physical aspect, but the psychological aspect certainly comes into it as well.”
Despite their deluge of injury struggles, Celtic – somehow – remain well in the fight for the Premiership title with six games to go.
O’Neill’s charges are doubtless the outsiders, but an indomitable spirit that has seen them amass 17 league points beyond the 80th-minute of games this season cannot be refuted.
That admirable fortitude is equally required among their injured players, whose road to recovery is obstructed by mental tribulations, professional relationships, and physical anguish.
O'Neill and supporters understandably want the likes of Jota, Johnston, and Carter-Vickers back as promptly as possible, but as they have come to learn throughout this season, patience is a virtue, and good things come to those who wait.
Share