Celtic interim manager Martin O’Neill hopes captain Callum McGregor will return from injury next week.
McGregor, 32, missed last weekend’s Scottish Cup win against Rangers and will also be on the sidelines for the Scottish Premiership visit of Motherwell on Saturday.
Celtic are five points behind league leaders Hearts, who go to Kilmarnock on Saturday, with nine games of the season left.
The former Scotland midfielder missed five weeks with an Achilles problem two years ago, but O’Neill says it is not a reoccurrence of that injury despite initially fearing it was.
Key defender Kieran Tierney also missed the victory at Ibrox with a foot issue, but he will be involved this weekend.
“Callum will miss the game but Kieran is in better shape and he’ll be there,” O’Neill said.
“It’s a calf strain and we’re hopeful, he’s done very well in recovery, for him to be back next week. It’s not related to a previous injury.”
Despite Celtic progressing to the cup semi-finals on penalties, McGregor’s influence was missed as O’Neill’s side registered just one shot in 120 minutes.
Luke McCowan started as the holding midfielder with Reo Hatate and Benjamin Nygren joining him in a midfield three at Ibrox, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Paulo Bernardo came off the bench.
“He’s been a great captain both in the dressing room and on the field but that’s something we’ll have to address,” O’Neill said about trying to replace McGregor. “We’ll have to try and find a few better attacking options.”
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has trained this week having had a shoulder injection before the trip to Rangers, but O’Neill was unsure if the Dane would be back in the matchday squad.
“Kasper is much much better. He trained today and didn’t feel his shoulder. I’ll have a look and see [if he’ll be in the squad].”
O’Neill is also optimistic the Green Brigade will accept the terms presented to them and return to Celtic Park for the season run-in.
Earlier this week, Celtic said they are awaiting a response from the Green Brigade regarding safety and security measures – as required by the police and Glasgow City Council’s Safety Advisory Group – to allow the club “to advocate re-entry” of the banned fan group to Celtic Park.
“It would be great if that was the case,” O’Neill said. “We’re running out of home games now.
“The sooner it could get sorted, it would be fantastic. The club going in the same direction, that’s what we want to do.”
