Celtic goalkeeper joins Inverness Caley Thistle on emergency loan as boss gives injury update on Aberdeen’s Alfie Bavidge
Celtic’s young goalkeeper Aidan Rice will start for Caley Thistle at home to Alloa tomorrow after sealing an emergency loan move.
The 18-year-old steps in with first choice Musa Dibaga overseas for Gambia’s FIFA World Cup African qualifiers against Kenya and Ivory Coast.
The Glasgow-born shot-stopper has already picked up valuable experience working among Brendan Rodgers’ first-team squad.
He became has been a mainstay for the young Celts, saving penalties in back-to-back UEFA Youth League matches en-route to the knockout stages.
Rice trained at the club yesterday (Thursday) and manager Scott Kellacher said: “We’ve young Aidan in for one match, which is ideal – Chris McCart (head of Celtic’s academy) and Colin Meldrum (Celtic B team goalkeeping coach) have been brilliant in helping us out.
“The young kid came in today and trained, and did ever so well. It’s a big gap to fill because Musa has been brilliant.
“Michael Fraser, our goalkeeping coach, worked a bit with him today. We were winding Michael up saying he might be involved on Saturday, but he said he wasn’t available!
“We have young Szymon Rebilas (Millburn Academy pupil) who has been brilliant for us as well.
“Aidan is highly thought of at Celtic and has been involved in their European campaign. They were eager to help and we can’t thank them enough.”
Meanwhile, Aberdeen loanee striker Alfie Bavidge is out for at least another 10 days with a hamstring issue.
Bavidge, with six goals in 10 starts for ICT, needs to rest before undertaking a second scan.
Kellacher said: “Alfie won’t be involved at the weekend. The scan came back a wee bit unclear, so he has to rest for probably the next 10 days to see if it settles down, then they will try to get another image of it.
“Then we’ll know where we go from there.”