Celtic address futures of Tomas Cvancara and Kasper Schmeichel
Czech and Dane were not present for semi-final at Hampden
Celtic striker Tomas Cvancara has been told he faces stiff competition for the main striking spot for the rest of the season after missing out entirely on Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final win over St Mirren.
Cvancara was not even listed among the substitutes for the 6-2 win at Hampden over the Buddies - a week on from starting against the same opposition in the Premiership.
Japanese forward Daizen Maeda started as Celtic’s No 9 and opened the scoring, while Kelechi Iheanacho came on as a substitute and netted twice in extra time. Junior Adamu was also preferred to Cvancara on the bench.
A Czech internationalist, Cvancara joined Celtic on loan in January from German side Borussia Moenchengladbach until the end of the season. However, the 25-year-old has only scored two goals in 13 appearances for the Glasgow side and faces losing his status as the team’s main striker for the remaining five league matches - and the Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline Athletic next month.
“We did a bit of rotating for the semi-final,” said O’Neill on Cvancara. “It wasn’t phenomenal rotating but I felt Junior has trained really, really strongly. So that’s it. Listen, people have to fight for positions in the team.”
Celtic are back in action on Saturday at home to Falkirk in the league and it remains to be seen whether Cvancara will be reinstated into the squad.
One man who definitely won’t be present for that game is goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, whose season is over due to a major shoulder issue. He wasn’t present at Hampden on Sunday, preferring instead to take in Manchester City v Arsenal, while his name was absent from the squad list in the matchday programme.
“He is still contracted to the club, yes,” said O’Neill, putting to bed any suggestions that Schmeichel, with his current deal set to expire in the summer, is no longer a Celtic player.
O’Neill expects to know more about Schmeichel’s status later this week. “There are some medical decisions to be made on whether he’s to get this operation,” said the manager. “I will know more about that in the middle of the week.
“But I have been speaking to the medical staff who were telling me he was going to see a specialist. He may even have done that by now as that was last midweek. But I don’t know whether the specialist wants to do this operation or not. That was the last news I got but I’ll know more this midweek.”
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