Cameron Carter-Vickers suffered the final blow of a difficult season when injury ruled him out of a homeland World Cup Finals appearance.
His Celtic club-mate Auston Trusty will instead represent the United States on home soil during the summer showpiece tournament.
Once the World Cup concludes, however, an intriguing role reversal is expected to unfold at Parkhead when Carter-Vickers returns to full fitness.
Celtic supporters were heartened to see Carter-Vickers on the pitch when both the Premiership and Scottish Cup trophies were secured toward the end of the campaign.
Late-season silverware helped erase memories of a turbulent period the club endured throughout the earlier months of the campaign.
There is little doubt that much of the turmoil accompanying Celtic’s performances could have been eased had their talismanic defender not been sidelined for seven months.
Since arriving at Celtic on an initial loan spell from Spurs five years ago, Carter-Vickers has delivered outstanding numbers and performances consistently.
During his first term under Ange Postecoglou, his partnership with Carl Starfelt provided the defensive bedrock, with just 22 goals conceded across 38 Premiership games.
Those displays prompted Celtic to pay £6 million to make the deal permanent, and Carter-Vickers responded again as Postecoglou swept all domestic honours to claim Celtic’s eighth Treble.
Brendan Rodgers also benefited from Carter-Vickers in his first two seasons back at the club, with a subsequent pairing alongside Liam Scales proving particularly productive.
Trusty arrived in the summer of 2024, but it was Carter-Vickers and Scales who did the heavy lifting, reducing the backline’s Premiership goals conceded from 30 to 26 the following campaign.
In the seven top-flight matches Carter-Vickers played last term before injury struck, Celtic conceded just five goals across those fixtures.
However, when Carter-Vickers sustained his Achilles injury during the Europa League victory over Sturm Graz in October, the defensive unraveling was swift and significant.
By the end of the season, 41 goals had been conceded in the league, the highest tally since Carter-Vickers first signed for the club.
For the first time since his arrival, Celtic shipped an average of more than a goal per game across a top-flight campaign.
Martin O’Neill’s team kept clean sheets in just three of their last 18 domestic games, failing to secure a single shutout across all five post-split fixtures.
Many of Celtic’s issues were attributed to a lack of firepower, yet the statistics clearly indicate that a brittle defensive backbone was equally damaging to their prospects.
Carter-Vickers’ value extends well beyond the transfer market figure he might command, with crucial but often unseen contributions shaping how Celtic attack as well as defend.
His ability to squeeze the game, recover the ball quickly and recycle possession into midfield keeps opponents pinned back and attacking midfielders in dangerous positions.
Trusty, by contrast, does not possess the same levels of distribution, a fact highlighted on the final day of the league season when Hearts players deliberately left the American on the ball during the title decider.
With Liam Scales signing a new contract until 2030, the progression of Dane Murray and transfer window links to new centre-backs already emerging, Trusty may find himself on the outside looking in when Carter-Vickers returns for the start of next term.
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