A good result against Celtic would be just what the doctor ordered for Dunfermline winger Joe Cardle after spending most of the festive season in his sickbed.
Cardle was floored by a festive bug that made him so ill that he had to call his GP out to his home on Boxing Day. He would have missed Wednesday’s game at Motherwell had it not been blown away by the high winds.
Indeed, he only just began to recover his strength towards the end of last week, finally returning to training on Thursday. He is fighting fit now, though, and a decent performance against the league-leading Hoops would provide him with the perfect tonic.
”I went to bed on Christmas night feeling fine but I woke up at 3am with a horrible illness,” said Cardle. ”I had a bout of sickness and I didn’t eat anything for three days. I couldn’t keep anything down.
”It was horrific and I couldn’t even get out my bed on Boxing Day so I had to get the doctor out. I had absolutely no energy at all.
”I thought it was food poisoning and perhaps something I ate on Christmas Day like a bad prawn. But we have since decided it was a bad illness or virus.
”I was feeling better so I came in on Thursday and got a good training session in. The last thing we need is more players being out and I think it was a blessing in disguise that the Motherwell game was called off.”
While he recuperated, Cardle had time to watch TV as the Hoops beat Rangers last midweek. He saw enough to confirm what he already thought Celtic are on song.
”I watched the Old Firm game and it builds you up for playing them,” he said. ”We have to get our tails up even though the performance on Christmas Eve against St Johnstone wasn’t the best from us.
”We have to put it behind us and hopefully get something out of this match. We know it is going to be a massive task with what Celtic have done in their last nine games. To win them all is some record and they showed it against Rangers even in the bad conditions.
”We have got to put ourselves about because we know anything can happen on the day. They have got some great players who can finish you off all over the pitch.
”But we know was have good players at Dunfermline even though we have still to show it in the league. We haven’t picked up the points we could have done but this is a new year and a new start for us.”
Cardle’s resolution for 2012 is for the Pars to really scrap for survival in the SPL.
”After the new year was when we picked things up last season, going on to win the First Division,” he reflected. ”Hopefully, we can kick on again. I think the boys have to realise this is our livelihoods. We want to stay in this league.
”Even a draw against Celtic would set us up for the new year anything we can get out of the game would be perfect. To stop what Celtic have done over the last nine games would be brilliant. That is what we want to do.”
Dunfermline’s Craig Easton and Kevin Rutkiewicz are unlikely to feature as they seek to improve their match fitness, while Paul Gallacher, Austin McCann, Nick Phinn, Steven Bell and Steven McDougall remain absent
Beram Kayal will be missing for Celtic. The Israel midfielder was carried off on a stretcher in the 1-0 win over Rangers on Wednesday with an ankle injury that will keep him out for at least a month.
New signing Mikael Lustig, a Sweden full-back, will not be involved.