If Carter Vickers needs an operation it’s obvious what Celtic must do.

Last night, a rumour exploded across social media—promoted, naturally, by the Daily Record—suggesting that Celtic have concerns about the fitness of Cameron Carter-Vickers, and that there’s a distinct possibility he may require surgery.

We spoke yesterday about the looming importance of Austin Trusty this season, and the question of whether he’s ready to take on a bigger role. We’ve also discussed the signing of Japanese defender Hayato Inamura and wondered where, if anywhere, he might fit into the team. Well, we may be about to find out—and not in the way we’d have hoped.

Let’s not sugar-coat it: this would be a matter of immense concern to every Celtic supporter. The idea of going into a Champions League qualifier with a centre-back pairing of a raw recruit and Austin Trusty is simply not credible.

That cannot happen. If Carter-Vickers is injured and requires an operation, then Celtic must act swiftly and decisively to bring in a brand new central defender—even if that means spending more than we had intended; Hell, we need one anyway and nobody was really in denial about that even before this.

We are talking about the Champions League. A place at that table is worth over £40 million. We cannot afford to leave that kind of money on the table. We cannot gamble with that kind of return. At some point, those running this club must get serious about what we are actually in business to do.

Playing it safe. Acting meek. Project signings. That’s not a strategy. Not when qualification is on the line. Project players don’t get you into elite competitions. And if we’re not at the top table, the consequences—both financial and reputational—will be felt for a long, long time.

Some people will say that spending is a risk too. That if we splash the cash and still fail, we’ll have problems. But you know what? The real risk is failing to act at all. As the saying goes, to fail to prepare is to prepare to fail.

And if we don’t look like we’re seriously committed to this—if we don’t project strength—then what conclusion should the rest of football draw, other than that we are a club run by men without vision or guts?

It was bad enough that we appeared to throw in the towel in last year’s Champions League campaign. We sold our number one striker after qualification and didn’t replace him in time for the Aston Villa game. That told you all you needed to know about how seriously we took it. And when we went into the Bayern match with no top striker brought in, it became clear we weren’t serious about that either.

And what makes it worse is that the players and the manager did respond to the moment. They gave what that moment demanded, far more than anyone on the board could be bothered to do. They showed bottle. They rose to the occasion. And so you can’t help but wonder what might have been possible if we’d just backed them with the signings they deserved.

This is exactly what many of us feared when we were talking about the Inamura signing last week—that he’d be treated as a first-team ready player, regardless of how untested he is, and thrown into huge fixtures without the experience or quality to handle them. If the reports about Carter-Vickers are true, then that fear is already becoming reality.

And here’s the thing about Carter-Vickers. This wouldn’t be the first time. Since signing permanently in 2022, he has played a pivotal role in our success—but he has also missed a lot of football.

He played through the 2022/23 season with a lingering knee issue, eventually needing surgery that kept him out for months. He didn’t feature in the final games of that campaign—including the Scottish Cup Final—because he had to go under the knife.

He then returned last season and picked up another knock not long after. His game time had to be carefully managed. He was excellent when he played—but there were only 22 league appearances across the whole campaign.

That’s not a dependable number for your most important defender. This isn’t a one-off concern. This is now a pattern. And if he’s going under the knife again, it’s a crisis that’s been brewing for a while.

So yes, the manager and the fans are right to be worried. The Champions League qualifiers are not the time to experiment. They are not the time to take gambles. These are the most valuable two games of our season. And we cannot afford to go into them underpowered and underprepared.

We’ve said this before, and we’ll keep saying it: the reward is too great, and the risk is too high, to take a chance with these qualifiers. It would be a dereliction of duty for a board that is sitting on tens of millions of pounds to go into those games without giving the manager the tools he needs.

It’s a scandal if we don’t spend. It’s a scandal if we roll the dice and hope for the best. And it’s something the manager shouldn’t tolerate—and the fans must not.

This is our moment. If Carter Vickers is going to be out a while then the future of our season could hinge on what happens in these next few weeks. It’s time for those at the top of the club to step up. No more dithering. No more excuses. No more pretending we don’t see what’s in front of us.

Spend the money. Sign the players. And back this manager like you mean it.