Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou acknowledged the indiscriminate nature of Covid-19 as he prepares to face virus-ravaged St Mirren in Paisley on Wednesday night.
St Mirren failed in a request to get the game postponed on Tuesday after recording more positive tests, four days after being forced to suspend training amid an outbreak.
There remains some doubt about the game with St Mirren awaiting more PCR results but Jim Goodwin could be forced to put out a severely-weakened side if they still have enough players under league rules.
Postecoglou said: “It is tough for Jim and the club. Dundee United were in a similar position at the weekend. It could happen to any of us.
“We got tested today and as a manager the first thing on your check list every day is to make sure we have got nothing ourselves.
“We have a significant injury list and if we lose players we are in a similar boat. It is just the way of the world right now.
“You do feel for the opposition but at the same time it is still a game we need to win and I am sure whoever St Mirren put out there, they will try to stop us and we just have to get on with it.”
Postecoglou addressed the difficulty of preparing for a game against a makeshift side but insists his players should have the answers for whatever they come up against.
The former Australia boss, whose side are seven points behind cinch Premiership leaders Rangers, said: “We pride ourselves in making sure we are well prepared for every opponent. We prepare the same way. We scout every opponent live and through footage.
“We have a team of analysts here who do a lot of work to make sure we have all the information so you are flying by the seat of your pants a little when you don’t know the line-up of the opposition, particularly when it such an extreme situation like now.
“But the flip side of that is we have some fundamentals that don’t change.
“There are some things in our preparation, in our football that, irrespective of the opponent, we always emphasise and we kind of fall back on that because the reality is, that is the nature of football, you can’t prepare for every outcome for every scenario.
“There might be some unknowns, some unexpected things happen, some players we weren’t aware of and the responsibility lies with the players to deal with that and how they deal with that is within the confines of our structure.”
