Celtic Must Get Carter Vickers Fit … And Then Tie Him Down On A New Deal.

Yesterday, the boss updated us on the injury to Cameron Carter Vickers, and although I’m pretty encouraged by his progress and the manager’s belief that he’ll be back in training sometime in early October, that scares the Hell out of me at the same time.

The reason Cameron Carter Vickers is sitting out so many games until then is that we needlessly, foolishly, rushed him back into the team before he was ready after he’d recovered from his last spell on the sidelines. We learn slowly when we learn at all.

There is no way that we will see Cameron Carter Vickers back in the starting line-up in early October. He will need weeks of training to get anywhere near his peak. He will need to be eased back into the team slowly and carefully, not thrown in three quarters or even half fit. This is the road to disaster. This is the path to another long spell out of the team.

The Ibrox club has made this mistake with several of its players already in this campaign, and they have paid the price for it. Raskin, Cantwell and others are out because they were either played whilst injured or returned to the team too early after recovering.

We know this team is so much better for his presence in it. We know that it would be terrible to have to play European Group Stage games without him when he could be shoring up the backline and inspiring the guys in front of him … but let’s be brutally honest here; this is going to be a longer season than just a few Champions League matches.

We have to be thinking about the long haul. We cannot afford to have him miss half of the season. We’ve already lost him for way too much time as it is. We have cover. One of the positives of Carter Vickers time out is that new heroes get to step up to the mark, and Liam Scales looks like being one of them. That will stand us well far into the future.

That future should – must – have Carter Vickers at its centre. He is one of the best we’ve had in years. Making sure we keep him should be our next big priority … after getting him fit. Once he is, a new contract should not wait another day.