Reinaldo Rueda explains why Celtic stepped in to stop Luis Palma playing Honduran friendly this month

The international break is now in full swing as some of Celtic’s players prepare to take part in Euro 2024 with Scotland.

Callum McGregor will be joined by Greg Taylor, Anthony Ralston and James Forrest who all got the call from Steve Clarke last week to take part in the current squad.

The Celtic trio will be looking to book their place alongside the Hoops captain on the plane to Germany if they impress in tonight’s bounce game against Gibraltar and Friday’s friendly against Finland at Hampden.

However, there is another Celtic player set for international duty over the coming weeks but it seems that the club have stepped in to stop him appearing in one Game scheduled later this month.

Celtic want Luis Palma rested

Luis Palma got the call to represent Honduras in their upcoming three Games which include the World Cup qualifiers against Cuba and Bermuda next week.

However, national boss, Reinaldo Rueda, has explained that Palma will not appear in the third fixture against Ecuador on the 16th of June after a conversation with Celtic took the decision to play Palma in the Game out of the Honduran boss’ hands.

Reida said [Diez], “Every call-up has its complications with the analysis we carried out, we also took into account the micro-cycles that were done.

“We are aware that we have something abnormal, we will have a match outside of FIFA dates, the Game against Ecuador on 16 June, so we made an extended call-up for those who are disqualified after the Game against Bermuda.

“You have to maintain a good relationship with their clubs and they are very jealous when they are not on FIFA dates.” [translated by Deep L]

Celtic clearly want Palma to have a full summer break so that he can be ready for the upcoming season where the defence of the title and the assault on the Champions League will make the first half of the season very hectic for the Parkhead club.

So the club took the step to remove Palma from the game against Ecuador as it’s not an official FIFA fixture.

With Palma already admitting that he had to work extra hours on the training pitch to improve his fitness this season, it’s clear Brendan Rodgers wants him back in tip-top condition to face what will be a long season ahead.