CARL Starfelt has vowed to put his frustrating spell on the sidelines firmly behind him in the coming months and help Celtic to retain the cinch Premiership and secure a return to the Champions League.
Starfelt made his return from a two month injury lay-off – he had not played since the 4-0 win over Rangers at Parkhead at the start of September – in the Group F match against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu on Wednesday night.
The Swedish centre half was unable to prevent the Scottish champions from slumping to a 5-1 defeat to their Spanish rivals in their final European outing of the 2022/23 campaign. However, he was delighted to be out on the pitch again after so long on the sidelines.
“It was a really tough game to come back from injury,” he said. “They were a really good team and it was a very tough game. But I am really happy to be back. I’ve been working hard to get back to playing games for two months and I was happy to be back on the field. My body felt better than I thought, so that is a positive.”
Starfelt, who formed a solid central defensive partnership with Cameron Carter-Vickers last season and helped Celtic to land a Premier Sports Cup and Premiership double, confessed the knee injury which he suffered against Rangers had been devastating for him.
It meant that he had to sit out the Glasgow club’s first five Champions League games against Real, Shakhtar Donetsk and RB Leipzig.
“The timing of my injury was awful because I basically missed a full European campaign,” he said. “I got injured three days before the first Champions League game against Real Madrid against Rangers.
“That was a really hard moment for me personally. I had just come back from an injury – I’d been injured a full pre-season – and then came back and played three games, scored two goals and got injured again.
“Real was my first Champions League game. It was not a good time for me but these are the things you have to accept in football. There is nothing we can do about it. I have been working really hard in the gym to get back as soon as possible.
“And I am happy that I at least got to play one game. Even if it didn’t end so good. I’ve been working so hard for this moment against Real. We are really disappointed with the result, I think we could at least have made it a little bit closer. It is what it is.”
The 27-year-old is adamant that Celtic have benefitted greatly from the matches they have played in the Europe’s premier club competition this season even though they finished bottom of their section and missed out on a place in the Europa League preliminary knockout round.
“We have learned a lot from it,” he said. “It’s really important to get experience of the Champions League. We need to play in these games because we don’t get that exposure so often when we face Scottish teams. It’s very good for us to get these games and hopefully we will win the league now and play again next season.
“We should be really disappointed with the results. After the first game we felt we could have won and could go through. We played Shakhtar and we should have won that game. If we had done that then everything looks different.
“But you can see that what we are doing works in some areas of the game. We came here and tried to play our football and we have to learn something from this. We need to be more ruthless in front of goal and also in defending our own goal. The football is there, but the last parts are not quite there yet.”
Starfelt has now turned his attention to helping Ange Postecoglou’s team maintain their lead over Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team at the top of the Premiership and is optimistic he can enjoy an extended run of games.
“I feel pretty good,” he said. “Physically I’m not 100 per cent fit. I felt that when I played against Real I feel I have some way to go until I am 100 per cent fit. After the World Cup break you will see me playing my best football and feeling 100 per cent.
“Now all my focus is on domestic football. It’s really important for us to win the league this year and to get into the Champions League again. It is where we want to be. Like we did last year we focus week by week then after the season we see where we are.
“There is a lot of football to be played after the World Cup, a lot of games and I am looking forward to being part of it.”
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