Will Ireland Make New Years Call?

He will also sit out the forthcoming Old Firm showdown with Rangers, but McGeady has appealed the ban and could take his case to the SFA if the Celtic board backs Strachan's call.

Agent David Holbrook said, "As we stand at the moment, Aiden is waiting on a letter to explain the disciplinary measures taken against him.

"He has five days from receipt of the letter to appeal and he intends to do so, that has not changed. He has been fined two weeks' wages and excluded from training with the first team for two weeks.

"That takes him up to December 30. After that he will return to training with the first team and be available for the next match.

"There is every possibility that Aiden will be playing for Celtic while the appeal procedure is going through. Beyond that all I can say is that it is in an internal matter.

"Celtic will follow procedures and we will follow procedures. We can't get too far ahead of ourselves. We have to see what the letter says to see what the club's position is before we can frame an appeal.

"It is new ground for me and it is ground that I'm sure the club and Aiden didn't want to cover."

McGeady, on the news pages again for his off field activities this weekend, has been linked with a move to Blackburn in the January transfer window.

Celtic fans chanted his name at the start of Sunday's game when Georgios Samaras, Japanese midfielder Kiko Mizuno and Scott McDonald scored in the 3-0 win over Falkirk.

Manager Strachan refused to be dragged into the McGeady controversy afterwards. "We will keep that in house," he said.

Before the game, however, Strachan tried to downplay the importance of the dispute with McGeady in the greater scheme of things. He said, "For the media it was the story of the week but it's different for me.

"I will take you back to last Tuesday when we made the statement. Nothing has changed from then and that's it as far as I'm concerned. The statement is self-explanatory and that is all we have to say at this moment in time.

"There have been far, far, far, far - and I can keep going with these fars for a long time - worse weeks than this. Trust me. Far more."

Celtic have completed deals for Irish winger Niall McGinn and Czech defender Milan Misun, and are also trying to sign Dundee United goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska and Hungarian midfielder Szabolcs Huszti from Hannover.

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Nster.com