The latest on Christopher Jullien at Celtic and other exits as Carl Starfelt provides injury relief

Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou is confident Carl Starfelt will be fit for their Premiership opener with Aberdeen at the end of the month, writes Scott Burns in Austria.

The Swedish international limped out of last month’s Nations League match against Slovenia with a hamstring injury. Postecoglou won’t be taking any chances with his central defender in pre-season because he wants to make sure he is fit and ready for when the competitive action starts - with Celtic ’s flag day against the Dons.

Postecoglou confirmed: “Carl’s the one who will probably miss a lot of this pre-season but we’re pretty confident we’ll have him back for the start of the season.” It leaves Celtic a bit short of experienced central defensive options for the remainder of their pre-season fixture list. Christopher Jullien is currently filling that void although his Celtic future remains up in the air. The Frenchman wants to play and saw a move to German side Schalke collapse last week. Postecoglou insisted it is very much down to the player to decide if he wants to stay or go.

He admitted: “Again, that’s pretty much in Christopher’s hands, it’s about what he thinks is best for his own future. I’ve said all along, and it was the same last year with Ryan (Christie), Odsonne (Edouard) and Kristoffer Ajer when they were here and doing the same sort of things in pre-season. I think if you ask those boys they would say that I treated them the same as everyone else, and Chris is in the same boat. What happens, that will take its natural course if and when decisions have to be made.”

Julien started Wednesday night’s thumping seven goal win over Wiener Viktoria and was even given the armband in the second half after Joe Hart had gone off. When asked what