O'Neill has faith in Douglas

Martin O’Neill took the biggest gamble of his managerial career tonight by bringing Robert Douglas straight back into his side for the UEFA Cup fourth round first leg clash at Parkhead.

The Scotland number one has not played since December 21 after undergoing a double hernia operation and being struck down with a thigh injury.

But he was forced to rush his recovery to aid a goalkeeping crisis with Magnus Hedman twisting his knee in training yesterday and Javier Sanchez Broto cup-tied.

Youngster David Marshall was drafted in as emergency cover on the bench should Douglas suffer a relapse, but he showed no signs of any problems during the warm-up.

It was still a huge risk, however, which could shatter their hopes of making it nine successive wins on home soil in Europe and set up another possible “Battle of Britain” with Liverpool in the fifth round of the competition.

The odds were also stacked against the Scottish champions with Henrik Larsson injured, John Hartson suspended and O’Neill sat in the stand.

Shaun Maloney was given the unenviable task of replacing the Swedish star, while Jackie McNamara came in for Ulrik Laursen in defence.

Stuttgart coach Felix Magath was looking from a response from his side after they crashed to a defeat against Schalke at the weekend, but at least he was happy to have Italian referee Pierluigi Collina in charge and a noisy travelling support backing his team.

Celtic: Douglas, McNamara, Balde, Valgaeren, Agathe, Lambert, Lennon, Petrov, Thompson, Sutton, Maloney.

Subs: Marshall, Sylla, Fernandez, Laursen, Healy, Guppy, Smith.

VfB Stuttgart: Hildebrand, Hinkel, Bordon, Meira, Gerber, Soldo, Meissner, Hleb, Balakov, Amanatidis, Kuranyi.

Subs: Ernst, Tiffert, Carnell, Seitz, Ganea, Danglmayr, Rundio.

Referee: Pierluigi Collina (Italy)