Martin O’Neill has openly stated that only Kasper Schmeichel can truly confirm whether he was completely frank with Celtic regarding his shoulder injury, which could potentially bring his career to a close.
The Celtic manager expressed his surprise after the Danish international revealed on television that he is set to undergo two surgeries, which might sideline him for up to a year. This unexpected announcement left many, including O’Neill, caught off guard.
The 39-year-old goalkeeper initially sustained the injury during a Nations League match against Portugal a year ago. Since then, Schmeichel has faced criticism for several key errors, notably during the Scottish Cup final loss against Aberdeen, which have marked his performances this season.
When questioned directly about Schmeichel’s honesty with the club regarding his condition, O’Neill responded, “Only Kasper would know that.” He expressed his astonishment at the revelation, particularly the severity of the situation.
O’Neill speculated that additional damage might have occurred during extra training sessions, which could explain the current predicament. “Based on previous scans, I never thought we were dealing with a career-threatening injury,” he added, highlighting his unexpected shock at the recent developments.
Martin O’Neill didn’t have a clue about how severe Kasper Schmeichel’s injury was
‘But, from the previous scans that we’d done, I never thought we were dealing with a career-threatening injury.
‘I must admit, I was surprised by its severity. I knew he was having injections to play some of the games, but that’s not a great remedy.
‘I didn’t realise how bad it was, so I’m disappointed to hear the news.’
O’Neill was clearly irked that the Dane chose to make the announcement via his role as a TV analyst rather than first notifying his employers.
‘If that was the first announcement, I would have preferred to hear it myself,’ he said.
‘Back in my time, if you didn’t report it to the football club first, you could get a fine. I might have to go and check his contract … it’s a very good point.
‘The club were aware of the test he was doing. It happened rather quickly, and sometimes I can be incommunicado, not wanting to hear some news.’
Given that the former Leicester keeper’s form has been an issue for some time, O’Neill was asked if there was any suggestion that he might have needed surgery earlier.
‘Hindsight is a great thing, but I genuinely don’t know,’ he replied.
‘As far as I know, he had the problem roughly the same time last year but came through it and had an excellent season for the football club. I wasn’t aware of a major problem at that time.’
O’Neill admitted he would have liked to have known about Schmeichel’s injury from the player himself – instead of hearing it from a TV interview
Celtic legend Chris Sutton accused Schmeichel of being ‘selfish’ for omitting to mention Celtic once in the interview in which the keeper only seemed concerned with his international prospects.
‘Chris is entitled to his own opinion, but it’s no serious issue for me,’ said the manager. ‘I don’t know whether he’s in the position to know that it was all about Denmark. I haven’t spoken to Chris.’
Schmeichel was around Lennoxtown on Friday as O’Neill outlined what the remainder of the season would look like for him as his contract winds down.
‘We have no problem rehabbing him here,’ he said. ‘I have no problem with him being around here.’
Meanwhile, O’Neill has told Alistair Johnston that it would be better if he continued his return from injury at Lennoxtown.
Out since October after hamstring surgery, the full-back has been called up by Canada but won’t play in the friendlies with Iceland and Tunisia.
While the player, who returned to the grass this week, would only go home to train with his international team-mates, O’Neill feels his time would be better spent working towards a first-team return in Scotland.
‘We at this minute would probably prefer him to stay,’ he said, while revealing that Callum McGregor should return against Dundee United on Sunday.
