Scottish Football News

Celtic have been dealt a blow in the preparation for their SPL title defence with the news that influential Japanese midfielder, Shunsuke Nakamura, is likely to miss the kick-off for the new season.

Nakamura has picked up a groin injury while with the Celtic squad in the Algarve, as the team competes in the Algarve Cup tournament. While the player is being monitored by Celtic’s medical staff, it is feared that the player could require surgery if the injury doesn’t respond to treatment.

Nakamura has been restricted to only doing light jogging training and could be as much as two weeks behind his team-mates when the season kicks off, which may rule him out of the first Old Firm clash against Rangers on August 31st at Celtic Park.

While on international duty in June with Japan as part of their World Cup qualifying campaign, Nakamura suffered a recurrence of an old ankle injury and this latest injury blow is another problem which Gordon Strachan could do without as the Hoops prepare to begin their SPL defence against St. Mirren on August 10th. Strachan has also seen injuries strike down young English striker, Ben Hutchinson, Nakamura’s fellow countryman, midfielder Koki Mizuno and recent signing Pat McCourt while New Zealand striker Chris Killen is away on Olympic duty with the New Zealand squad.

Meanwhile, a lacklustre Celtic played their first match of the Algarve Cup tournament against English Premiership side Middlesboro. In a match to forget, the two teams fought out a 1-1 draw with Dutchman Jan Vennegoor of Hesselhink grabbing an equaliser for the Hoops in injury-time. The standard league format for the tournament was amended to also offer teams an extra point for every goal scored, but Middlesboro set out their stall in a 4-5-1 formation and stifled the Celtic attack for much of the game, while offering little upfront themselves. Celtic’s next match in the tournament is against English Championship side, Cardiff City, on Thursday.

Celtic are rapidly losing patience with Romanian defender Gabriel Tamas. Tamas has been widely expected to sign for the Glasgow champions but with the deal being drawn out ever further and with no end in sight, Celtic’s Chief Executive Peter Lawell is understood to be ready to pull the plug on the deal and switch his intentions to Le Man’s Serbian defender, Marko Basa. The Serbian international is available for around £4.5 million after his club slashed their asking fee to try to tempt Celtic to make an approach for the player. Basa has already seen a move to rival French club Paris St. Germain collapse while Ukranian side Dinamo Kiev have also shown an interest, although it is believed the player does not want to return to the Eastern Bloc.

Some good news for Celtic came when young full-back Paul Caddis, who broke into the first-team towards the end of season 07/08 signed a new two-year contract with the club. Winger Aiden McGeady also signed a five-year contract recently.

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