Martin O’Neill jokes Celtic cannot cope without star man Camilo Duran

Duran was surprisingly left on the bench for Wednesday night’s 1-0 victory at McDiarmid Park, with O’Neill taking the opportunity to rotate his squad ahead of a demanding run of fixtures.

Celtic face Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup on Sunday before opening their Europa League campaign against Ferencvaros, followed by another Glasgow Derby in the Premiership.

Duran has quickly established himself as one of Celtic’s most important players, but O’Neill felt the forward looked tired against St Mirren and decided to manage his minutes in Perth.

Reflecting on his changes, the Celtic boss admitted the experiment of starting without Duran had given him plenty to think about.

O’Neill told the media after the game: “I do not want to use games like this, I have to find out about a number of players.

“For instance, Oliver Sorensen started the game tonight. Our main man only came on in the last 10 or 15 minutes.

“So it does, it gives you food for thought.

“So, Sorensen gets on, Duran doesn’t start for us. He’s just been class. He looked tired in the game against St Mirren.

“But I’m not surprised for the amount of things that he does for us, both with the ball, which is terrific, and also the work that he does off it.

“He’s second only to Daizen Maeda in terms of closing players down. So I wanted to try and see if we could do without him, and the answer is probably not!”

Duran’s importance could become even more apparent over the coming days as Celtic prepare for three significant fixtures across domestic and European competition.

O’Neill was nevertheless pleased to leave Perth with another three points and can now turn his full attention towards Sunday’s clash with Rangers.

On the positives he can take into Sunday’s Derby, he continued: “Naturally, I’m pleased we’ve won the game.

“Now we can concentrate – from tomorrow onwards – on the game.

“It’s a big match. I’ve not paid any attention; said to the lads yesterday that the most important thing was tonight.

“We made a couple of changes in the side, and you’re always concerned of making changes in the team, but the best place to know is not essentially in the training ground, it’s finding out what they can do in the matches.”