Tom Rogic Might Be Out For Ibrox, But Would He Have Started For Celtic Anyway?

How happy the press must be today as Ange confirms, to the club media outlets, that Tom Rogic will not train this week. They can now write their stories about him being a “doubt” for Ibrox without the fear of being contradicted.

Here’s the thing; he was a doubt for Ibrox anyway.

Would Tom Rogic have definitely started with O’Riley, McGregor and Turnbull all fit and able to play in his position? We don’t know what the manager plans to do with the team, but we do know that the midfield is the area where we have the most options.

Rogic would have been a contender … but a starter?

Nobody in this team can honestly claim to be guaranteed a start any longer.

It’s something I want to write more about later – and on the Endless Celts podcast last night we all talked about it a little – but for now it’s enough to say that when you look at a lot of the Ibrox XI’s which have been put out there so far, Rogic is in only a handful of them.

For myself, I think the midfield three at Parkhead was so outstanding that I wouldn’t touch it for Ibrox at all. McGregor, O’Riley and Hatate it is for me … I’m sure a lot of our fans feel the same way.

Rogic is a great option to have, but that’s all he is. An option amongst many.

I love the guy and think Ange has gotten more out of him than any Celtic boss could have – he’s become a 90-minute footballer for a start, which is incredible – and he has always been a big game player, but this is a stronger squad than we’ve had in ages.

Ange has not ruled Rogic out. He’s simply going to have to do a bit of rehab.

But I don’t think we should be terribly worried if he’s injured for this particular trip.

The squad can cope with his absence.

Hopefully, we don’t have too many more of these.