THE disappointment of newly arrived Jorge Cadete's absence from the Celtic team for tomorrow's Scottish Cup semi final against Rangers at Hampden Park could be compounded by injuries to Brian McLaughlin, John Collins and Phil O'Donnell. Manager Tommy Burns tries to lead his team to a first win in six attempts this season over their arch rivals.
Both sides, in fact, have problems with injuries, but the absence of O'Donnell, in particular, would give Burns some thinking to do and over the past few days he has repeatedly hinted that he could shake up his side as he searches for a way of breaking down a resilient Rangers defence.
Three weeks ago Celtic had the better of the game, especially through the second half when they trailed the League leaders, but they failed to gain any real penetration inside the last 25 yards even against a defence that was without the injured Richard Gough.
Walter Smith has also been without Dave Robertson in recent weeks while goalkeeper Andy Goram was also forced to sit out last weekend's 4-2 defeat of Raith but the manager is now likely to have all three available again and must decide whether to upset a team that has continued to do well in their absence.
In the drawn league match Burns faced a similar dilemma and chose to throw Collins and O'Donnell back into the fray with mixed results. Such has been Collins's lack of form of late for the club he apparently wants to leave that even if he does just make it on fitness his place may go elsewhere anyway.
Stuart Gray, the son of former Leeds star Eddie, may have done enough in Monday's 5-0 defeat of Aberdeen - his first appearance of the season, to hold on to his place for this match while the improvement in form of Jackie McNamara and Tosh McKinlay, upon whose crosses Celtic rely so heavily will be a boost to Burns. They have previously failed to perform against Rangers on the big days, however, and in the absence of good possession in wide positions Celtic have failed to score enough goals to see them through.
Last time out it took a John Hughes header with three minutes remaining to make up for the failings of the Celtic frontmen but, despite the much needed directness that Cadete brought to his new team in his brief debut this week Burns insists that the 27 year old Portuguese striker would not have started even if he had been signed in time.
"His absence will make no difference. The two guys up front, Pierre Van Hooydonk and Andreas Thom, have been superb all season and 10 minutes from them can win us this game."
Unfortunately, as he has discovered in recent times all too often, a few seconds from the likes of Gordon Durie, Ally McCoist or even anew signing Erik Bo Andersen can count for more than a great deal of Celtic pressure. His side will also have to cope once again with the erratic but undoubted abilities of Paul Gascoigne in midfield.
On St Patrick's Day Gascoigne's fitness was once again stretched with the English international struggling badly by the end of a quick game but he still laid on the goal for Alan McLaren just before half time and repeatedly caused the likes of Hughes, Tommy Boyd and Paul McStay problems when he moved forward.
All in all it has the makings of a fine Cup tie with the league match offering little to go on. Even if Celtic do lose Burns insists that the progress his side is making is ahead of schedule for the real challenge neat season of preventing Rangers equalling the club's record of nine consecutive League titles.
The former Celtic star has, however, more than once said that he feels the whole thing is taken too seriously, remarking before the match three weeks ago that: "We all know that Jock Stein was right when he said it was only a game.
A tragic reminder of the lunacy that sometimes surrounds these clubs' rivalry came last week, though, when a minute's silence was observed in memory of Celtic youth team player Lawrence Haggerty.
