Simunovic and Brown to return after the international break

Ronny Deila has given some positive news about the fitness of two players, including summer signing Jozo Simunovic.

The Norwegian spoke to the media ahead of team breaking up for the final international break of the calendar year and gave some positive updates about the fitness of Simunovic and captain Scott Brown.

As quoted by the Glasgow Evening Times, Deila said:

Jozo will be back after the time away with the national team. A proper look at the injury showed that it was nothing too big, which was good news for us.

Jozo has gone off to join up with Croatia but he has assured us that if he is not ready to play then he will come back and we trust the medical staff to take care of him.

Since his deadline day arrival to the Hoops, the 21-year-old defender has struggled with an ankle injury following his debut against Ajax, which kept him out of the squad for a month.

He returned to the team against Dundee United and didn’t look out of place in further appearances against Hearts and Aberdeen.

An injury late on against the Dons meant he was a doubt for the crucial match against Ajax and lasted just four minutes after a kick aggravated his ankle injury.

Deila also said he expects Scott Brown to be back after the international break who rolled his ankle in the warm-up against Hearts in the League Cup and hasn’t featured since.

We are very optimistic that Scott will be fine and will be back after the break.

He is such an important player for us. It will be a big thing for us to get him back in.

There was also an update on Charlie Mulgrew, who Deila admitted is making progress but still some way off getting back onto the field.

Charlie Mulgrew has a small chance for the end of this month. It is still early days for him and we do not want him to have another set-back so we are taking it slowly, but we will see nearer the time if he is going to make it or not.