Nancy delivers Kelechi Iheanacho boost ahead of Roma challenge | OneFootball

Celtic could welcome Kelechi Iheanacho back into their starting XI plans after Wilfried Nancy confirmed the striker is available ahead of tonight’s Europa League fixture against Roma…

Kelechi Iheanacho of Celtic celebrates his goal Crvena zvezda v Celtic, UEFA Europa League, Football, Rajko Mitic Stadium, Belgrade, Serbia – 24 September 2025 Belgrade Rajko Mitic Stadium Serbia Photo Nikola Krstic/Shutterstock

The Nigeria international has been sidelined since suffering an injury during the 2-1 home victory over Sturm Graz in October, shortly after arriving in Glasgow on a free at the start of September.

Despite scoring three times in eight outings this season, the 29-year-old was left on the bench without featuring in last month’s victory at Feyenoord in De Kuip.

Nancy is now optimistic that the experienced forward can make an impact against the Italian giants at Celtic Park tonight.

Kelechi Iheanacho in action during the Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

The update comes as a welcome boost for Nancy, who was left with just Johnny Kenny as the only recognised striker against Hearts at the weekend, forcing Daizen Maeda to be redeployed more centrally.

“He has trained well,” he said via Celtic’s official YouTube channel. “After that, he needs minutes. It has been a long time, two months since he really played.”

“The way we work the players who have not played regularly, we try to get them through physical work to get back into the rhythm. For the moment obviously he is not fit to play a lot of minutes, but a few minutes, yes. We will see.”

Kelechi Iheanacho celebrates scoring the winner for Celtic at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock v Celtic, 14 September 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Nancy added: “Many players have played many games in a row so I have to be careful. The complexity is we have a game tomorrow and three days later we have a final.”

“This is the tricky part. The idea is to assess and try to anticipate the subs I would like to do, but we will see live. I have to understand that also in the past they did not rotate much. So I have done my work on that. I believe we have the players to do that but it has to be step by step.”

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