Carter-Vickers 'a work in progress' after long lay-off

Celtic defender Cameron Carter-Vickers admits he is still "a work in progress" after returning to action following almost nine months out with an Achilles injury. The USA international made his comeback in Monday's season-opening 1-0 victory against Dundee and while delighted to be back on the pitch, he says there's improvements to come from himself and the team. "Obviously, pre-season I only played 60 minutes. So the last 15, 20 there was difficult," the 28-year-old said. "But yeah, it's good to be back in competitive games. I probably missed about eight, nine months of football. It's never going to be quick to get back to kind of exactly where you want to be. But it's a work in progress and I'm feeling pretty good. "Obviously good result, three points, that's all we were after. I thought we probably could have scored a few more goals with the chances that we had. "So yeah, first game of the season, something to build on and keep trying to improve." Martin O'Neill's side are two weeks away from their crucial Champions League play-off against Austrians LASK and have opted to postpone their Premiership game at St Johnstone that was due to be played between the two legs. And Carter-Vickers admits the extra preparation will be beneficial. "This is a key fixture," he added. "It's key to how your season's going to play out. It's definitely an important game and I do see that [rescheduling] as positive. "We're ready. We found out who we're playing. I think any game we had would have been a tough tie for us. We're looking forward to it and we'll go in there with positivity." Celtic fell at the same round last year after two goalless draws with Kazakh side Kairat Almaty, who progress on penalties. When asked what Celtic have learned from last year's disappointment, Carter-Vickers added: "Score a goal. I'm joking. Obviously, we know whoever you get in the qualifiers will be a tough tie. "So, we've got to go there, first at home and do our best to win the game and then try and go away and get the result we want."