FOOTBALL GOSSIP
Celtic’s Champions League opponents Borussia Monchengladbach have suffered another injury blow as 20-year-old Danish centre-half Andreas Christensen has been ruled out with injury. The Bundesliga side already have three strikers rated as doubtful for the tie. (Various)
Christensen has told his team-mates that Moussa Dembele is as dangerous as two top players from the other teams in the Champions League group, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero. (Sun)
Gladbach forward Andre Hahn is anticipating a “big fight” at Celtic Park but he says he and his team-mates are ready. (Daily Record)
The Germans’ sporting director Max Eberl was impressed with Celtic in the 3-3 draw with Manchester City but thinks Gladbach can earn a point or win if they bring their “A” game. (Daily Record)
The Champions League tie against Gladbach will be refereed by Tasos Sidiropoulos from Greece. (Daily Express)
Rainer Bonhof, the former Scotland Under-21s coach and now Gladbach vice-president, says he knew Scott Brown was going to be a star when he gave him his Scotland debut in a friendly in Spain. Bonhof sees Brown as Celtic’s key player. (Various)
Gladback’s Swedish left-back Oscar Wendt has warned his team-mates what to expect with the atmosphere at Celtic Park, having played there in the Champions League for Copenhagen. (Various)
Former Celtic and Wolfsburg defender Brian O’Neil thinks his former team will be able to withstand Gladbach’s high-tempo non-stop-attacking style. (Daily Record)
Pundit Chris Sutton thinks “recruitment people” at English Premier League clubs will be in trouble with their chairmen over their failure to spot the potential in Moussa Dembele, for whom Celtic paid Fulham £500,000 and who is now valued at many millions. (Various)
Sutton says Celtic’s 3-3 draw with Manchester City “transformed” the way people he knew viewed Scottish football. (Times)
Left-back Andy Robertson will miss Scotland’s match against England at Wembley after being ruled out for eight weeks with a calf injury sustained while playing for Hull. (Various)
Despite Leigh Griffiths’ struggle to find a starting place in the Scotland team under Gordon Strachan, former Celtic and Scotland defender Tom Boyd is confident Griffiths will seize his chance, having edged Nadir Ciftci out of the Celtic team when he came in for his suspended team-mate. (Various)
Boyd thinks Celtic’s left-back Kieran Tierney has “everything in his locker”, with his ability to defend and his desire to be an “auxiliary winger”. (Daily Record)
Griffiths changed his Twitter name to “#Shorty” after newspaper reports quoted Strachan’s preference for tall strikers. (Various)
Former Rangers player and coach Ian Durrant, looking ahead to the game against Celtic on Sunday, tells the current squad “if you want to be a Rangers player now is the time to stand up”. Rangers go into the Betfred Cup semi-final as underdogs having lost 5-1 in the league recently but Durrant points out that things can change quickly, with Dick Advocaat’s Rangers reversing a 6-2 loss to Celtic by beating their old rivals 5-1 two months later. (Daily Mail, Daily Record)
Former St Johnstone striker Stevie May is back in light training after almost a year out of action for Preston with a knee injury, which his manager Simon Grayson said “would have ended a player’s career” in years gone by. (Daily Record)
Rangers Ladies are looking for a new coach now that Kevin Murphy has been appointed technical director of Manchester City Women. (National)
Celtic favourite Henrik Larsson admits to being upset by a section of the Helsingborgs support calling for him to be sacked as the club’s manager. His team have lost nine of their last 10 games. (Times)
OTHER GOSSIP
Glasgow Warriors’s match against Munster in the European Rugby Champions Cup looks like it will go ahead as planned on Saturday, despite the sudden death of the Irish team’s coach Anthony Foley in a Paris hotel at the weekend. (Daily Mail)
Boxer John McCallum can’t wait to fight in his home city of Edinburgh again after building his career in England under promoter Steve Goodwin. He will fight on the Meadowbank undercard of Josh Taylor’s Commonwealth super-lightweight bout against Dave Ryan on Friday, after returning from sparring at the famous Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn. (Daily Record)
