Celtic suffer ‘setback’ over £45k-a-week trio at Parkhead

Celtic have suffered a ‘setback’ in their quest to get back to winning ways after several stars picked up recent injury issues, according to journalist Dean Jones.

Influential trio Cameron Carter-Vickers, Georgos Giakoumakis and Daizen Maeda are among the doubts for the visit of Motherwell over the weekend, limiting manager Ange Postecoglou’s options.

Carter-Vickers, who reportedly earns £5,400-per-week, was a big loss when Celtic fell to a shock 2-0 defeat at the hands of St Mirren prior to the international break.

And the USA international has been described as a ‘major doubt’ for the Hoops’ upcoming clash against Motherwell after missing out on both of his nation’s World Cup warm-up matches against Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Joining Carter-Vickers on the sidelines is likely to be Giakoumakis, who takes home £23,500 every seven days, after he went for a scan on a leg injury.

The Greek striker also played no part in his country’s recent fixtures, with his manager Gus Poyet declaring that he doesn’t believe that he will have recovered in time to feature for Celtic this afternoon.

Maeda, who earns £15,500-per-week, suffered a similar fate as his teammates and had to be substituted at half-time in Japan’s goalless draw with Ecuador.

Jones has told GiveMeSport that Celtic will be eager to ‘immediately’ regain their ‘winning rhythm’ but that their fitness woes could be a hinderance to Postecoglou’s charges.

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He said: “They lost their winning rhythm before the break, and they’re obviously going to try and get it back immediately, but injuries like this are a setback at a time when they really need to get a grip again.