Cameron Carter-Vickers to have surgery after helping Celtic defeat Rangers in Scottish Cup

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou has revealed that Cameron Carter-Vickers’ season is over, with the defender to undergo a knee operation.

Carter-Vickers was a stand-out player as Celtic defeated Rangers 1-0 in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden, clearing a Fashion Sakala shot off the line and helping his side deal with pressure as their rivals pushed for an equaliser.

The performance drew praise from Postecoglou, who said that the USA international had been dealing with a knee issue for some time and would now have surgery to clear it up.

Postecoglou said: “He hasn’t put a foot wrong since we signed him. He has been outstanding.

“Him and Carl as a partnership, I could be wrong but they still haven’t lost domestically. They are an outstanding pair, they really work hard together.

“Cameron again keeps growing as a player and as a leader within the group.

“That’s his last game for us, he needs to get his injury looked at now, so that will be him for the season. But he wanted to play.

“I was trying to push him to have it done a bit earlier but I’m scared of him so I just let him do what he wants. He was keen to play and he put in a performance that befits his standing at our football club. It’s a credit to him.”

Celtic will now go on to play their remaining league fixtures as they close in sealing the Premiership title win, while now looking ahead to the Scottish Cup final against Inverness after coming out on top in a hard-fought derby at the national stadium.

Daizen Maeda crossed for Jota to head in the only goal of the game just before half-time and Postecoglou thought his side showed positive qualities at both ends of the pitch.

“I get the narrative will be that we were lucky again but that’s alright, we’ll just keep winning games of football,” the Celtic manager said.

“I thought we defended really well. There was a lot of balls coming in the box and our two centre-halves were outstanding.

“I thought the work-rate of our front players, Daizen Maeda in particular, was incredible, particularly in the first half.

“You have to earn these things and I was pleased that the team showed they can be resilient as well as play their football like we know we can.

“We kinda knew what was at stake. Rangers, this was their last opportunity to sort of gain some success as well. So we knew it was going to require all facets of our game and I thought we did that.

“You know, we played our football when we needed to. We defended really strongly when we needed to.

“And throughout it all just underpinned by just the unbelievable work ethic this group of players has.

“They found a way to overcome the challenge again and it’s a credit to them.”