Remember me
Injuries continue to dominate narrative at Parkhead as manager recalls his own conundrums
We will miss Martin O’Neill when he eventually departs Scottish football. An audience with the Celtic manager is rarely dull and a Friday afternoon in the Lennoxtown sunshine was as illuminating as ever.
There was a serious topic of conversation that dominated the narrative, but O’Neill was still able add colour - and at times comedy. Kasper Schmeichel’s shoulder injury is no laughing matter, certainly for the poor 39-year-old, who revealed earlier this week that it may force his retirement. Question after question came O’Neill’s way on the subject. After all, it was only a week ago when the manager said his No 1 was in contention to return.
Somewhere along the way, there has been a breakdown in communication. That’s why the situation surrounding Schmeichel is a hot topic. The veteran goalkeeper has made mistakes this season, some of which have been costly. Way before the severity of his shoulder came to light, onlookers had questioned whether the Dane was fully fit. Now we know, after the keeper told the world that he may never play again.
Celtic manager Martin O'Neill welcomes goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel to training. | SNS GroupO’Neill wasn’t expecting the revelation on Wednesday evening after the Champions League action and he certainly wasn’t expecting Schmeichel to not play again. With an operation scheduled next week, his Celtic playing career is over. He was at Lennoxtown to oversee training and pictures caught him and the manager smiling. Behind closed doors, one wonders whether the boss is all that impressed.
“If that was the first announcement, I would have preferred to hear it myself,” O’Neill said. “Back in my time, if you didn’t report it to the football club first, you could get a fine. I might have to go and check his contract; it's a very good point!”
Schmeichel is still welcome at Celtic, sanction or not. "He won't be able to play the games,” continued O’Neill. “It's a matter now of just having rehab. It's an interesting one because his contract will be up at the end of the season. I was just speaking to him there about rehab. We have no problem rehabbing him here.
“Eventually, it might be a stage if contracts are not renewed, the next part of that might have to be done somewhere else. So maybe now, before he does get the ops, if there was someone supervising that from start to finish, if you are coming back to play.”
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O’Neill was matter-of-fact on way Schmeichel’s career may be closed off. "It happens, it happens,” he said. “Did I think that, having won the European Cup, my final game would be against Shrewsbury? Not really! In my mind, it was going to be Real Madrid vs Barcelona! It didn't happen, so these things happen."
The way Schmeichel broke the news - and recent performances - has left a bitter taste in some Celtic supporters’ mouths. O’Neill does not want that to cloud his two years at Parkhead, regardless of how the whole matter has been handled. “My own viewpoint is that you have to realise what he did [during his career],” reasoned O’Neill. “He came after big Joe [Hart] had dine fine. According to some of the boys, even in Joe’s last couple of months they were starting to be a few rumbles. But Joe did super. I think the same will be afforded to Kasper.”
It was put to O’Neill that Schmeichel put his body on the line in his final two matches against Stuttgart - where he conceded four goals in a horror European first leg - and Hibs. “That’s true,” admitted the manager. “Really, I didn’t think that. The injury, if you do think about it, if he was playing in that pain, fine. But when I said to him ‘you’re going to play against Hibs’ – such he did do at the end of it all – that was my decision. And he didn’t say no.
“In truth, let’s say it was a different result in the game [against Stuttgart], a different scoreline because the fourth goal makes it really difficult to try and win it out in Stuttgart and win the tie over two legs. If it was close, he might well have played in the second Stuttgart game [instead of Viljami Sinisalo]. I can’t be more honest than that.”
Perhaps such understanding comes from his own experiences. O’Neill himself took injections to play through the pain barrier when he was a player - flagging up a famous match while he was at Nottingham Forest.
“The European Cup Final in 1979, Archie Gemmill was actually promised by Brian Clough that he would play,” explained O’Neill. “Clough loved Archie. He didn’t like me so much.
“I declared myself fit to play in a European Cup final when I hadn’t trained for three weeks. Now, I defy anybody else to put themselves in that position. Then I moaned that I didn’t play in the final. But if I was the manager, I wouldn’t even have been thinking about playing me regardless.
“My first training session in three weeks after a haematoma in my thigh was the Monday evening in Munich before the Wednesday night game. If you’re a manager you’re thinking … he had Archie Gemmill, who he loved. Archie hadn’t trained so he had decisions to make.
“So my point is this here. So would I have considered that selfish to play, let’s say, put me into the side and played for 15 minutes and had to come off and to the detriment of the team? Well, I’m sure he [Clough] would have let me know about that there.
“In my mind, because I was generally pretty fit, I didn’t need three weeks training beforehand to play because I was naturally fit, and I would get over it. But I didn’t. I hadn’t got over it.
“Brian Clough reminded me the following week, I played an international game against Denmark for Northern Ireland. I’d taken off at half-time, so he was right. But would I have done that? I probably would, yeah. But I declared myself fit in the morning.”
Kasper Schmeichel may not play again due to his shoulder issue. | SNS GroupInjuries have dominated O’Neill’s two spells at Celtic this season. The press had more players to grill him on. “I'm going to change profession,” sighed O’Neill, who for effect took off his glasses. “I'm going to become the medic here. And then Tim Williamson [current physio] can come and answer the football questions and get on with it.”
He drew chuckles from the small crowd, who were keen to find out more about Canada’s Alistair Johnston, out for months with hamstring issues but close to return now. “He's doing really well,” was the reply. “His national side want him to go for a week over there. We at this minute would probably prefer him to stay.”
Pressed on whether Johnston would be back after the international break, O’Neill brought back the humour. “I'm sorry lads, what happens here is that I should really get an update before I walk in here,” he smiled. “It does help, and just flying things off the cuff as I've tried to do for most of my life, to tell you the truth. So I will find out.”
What about Arne Engels? “Arne's doing really fine. I think he is somewhere in North Africa doing some rehab! Yeah, he is! He's in North Africa! I think he moved from North Africa to southern Mexico! Yeah, but he's doing rehab somewhere and hopefully he's around.
“If you just give me two minutes, I'll go up and check to see. Let me phone him. I didn't see him actually ...”
Read MoreOne journalist piped up that he’d spied Engels at the entrance to the training centre. “Oh, you saw him? Oh, he's back. He's back. Brilliant. Thank you. Anybody else?”
Well Martin, since you asked, what about your captain Callum McGregor, who missed the past two matches? “Oh, brilliant,” sighed O’Neill. “Well, Callum, he did his rehab somewhere in Lanarkshire. So luckily we kept him. He's fine. He's going to be fine. We'll see how he is tomorrow. That was his first real day with the team. But he's raring to go.”
A piece of good news. McGregor will be vital as Celtic begin their eight-game sprint to the Premiership finishing line against Dundee United on Sunday. By that point, the focus may finally be off Schmeichel ...