Scottish Football: No place for McKinlay at Celtic

Celtic's head coach Wim Jansen last night confirmed there is no place for Tosh McKinlay in the squad for today's home clash with Motherwell, following his training ground clash with team-mate Henrik Larsson last week.

McKinlay is the natural replacement for the suspended Stephane Mahe at left-back but the bust-up with the Swede looks to have signalled the end of McKinlay's time with Celtic.

The defender made a late appearance as substitute for Scotland in their defeat against France in St Etienne in midweek, but is not among Jansen's 16-man squad.

"At this stage I would prefer to leave matters in-house, but there will be some information about this next week," Jansen said.

"I have spoken to the player about his position, but that was before what happened."

On a more upbeat note, Jansen was delighted to announce that Darren Jackson returns to the first team reckoning. The Scotland forward has made a rapid recovery after brain surgery and may have a place on the bench.

Alan Stubbs has responded well to treatment on a bruised eye and is expected to be fit enough to start after initially fearing a six-week lay-off following an accidental mid-air collision with Rangers' Marco Negri last Saturday.

Motherwell, who are bottom of the table, have a number of injuries series of injuries and have not gained a point since a 2-2 draw at Rangers on 27 September.

For the visit of Rangers Aberdeen will be managed for the first and perhaps last time by the former Tottenham manager Keith Burkinshaw. Burkinshaw, the director of football, has stepped in on a caretaker basis while the club find a replacement for Roy Aitken, sacked on Monday after his side had recorded just two wins from 12 games this season.