Aiden McGeady is set to return to the Celtic team for the Champions League clash in Aalborg after overcoming a calf injury.

The Republic of Ireland winger, who has missed the last five games, has also recovered from tendinitis in his knee.

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Massimo Donati and Marc Crosas are still out but Barry Robson, Paul Hartley and Shunsuke Nakamura are all expected to shake off knocks.

Celtic manager Gordon Strachan insists he will focus only on achieving the club's first away win in the Champions League - and forget the favour needed from Manchester United at Villarreal.

Ahead of the Group E clash against the Danish club at the Energi Nord Arena, the Hoops boss was reminded once again that Celtic have taken just one point from a possible 51 in their Champions League group phase matches away from Parkhead.

The Scottish champions will be bounced out of the competition if they fail to win against Aalborg who are tied with Celtic on two points at the bottom of the table.

However, even an historic away victory is no guarantee of a last-16 spot for the third year in succession.

United have to win at Villarreal in Spain in the other Group E clash that night, which would then leave the Hoops looking for a win over the Spanish club at Parkhead on match day six.

Strachan, however, will not be keeping one eye on the result in Villarreal.

"We will just get through the game and see what happens," the Celtic boss said.

"We do that all the time.

"You are talking to a man who didn't realise we had qualified for the last 16 (two seasons ago) when we beat Manchester United, so I think that says it all.

"It's a game in which Aalborg can get a home win and Celtic can get an away win. Both are capable of winning.

"I watched the tape of Aalborg against Villarreal, they gave them a good game and they are a very good side who are playing well at the moment.

"We try and attack everywhere we go so it will be no different and we will play the game as we see it."

Strachan bristled at one Danish reporter who asked the rather straight-forward question of why Celtic had not yet won away from home in Europe's premier club competition.

He said: "The other teams have scored more goals than us and we haven't scored enough. It's quite simple really.

"I'm sorry I can't give you a wonderful answer but that's it."

Aalborg were thought to be the weakest team in the group but against the odds they drew 0-0 at Celtic Park on matchday one when goalkeeper Karim Zaza saved a first-half penalty from Barry Robson.

Strachan, though, has no desire to linger over his side's poor start to this season's competition.

He said: "You can't beat yourself up with things like that.

"Aalborg put up a good show that night. We had the chance to win with the penalty and we made far more chances than we did against Copenhagen, the last Danish side we played against.

"So we can't complain. We admired Aalborg's character that night."

A scoring draw or better would guarantee Celtic a place in the UEFA Cup and Strachan admits that would be a decent consolation for missing out on the knockout stages.

He said: "It would be nice if we were still involved in Europe in February, that's for sure, that would be good."

Aalborg stand-in boss Allan Kuhn dismissed the quality of Scottish football ahead of the game.

Kuhn had Celtic watched in their 3-1 win over St Mirren at Love Street on Saturday but he insists the formality of that victory failed to hide some fundamental defensive problems.

"St Mirren were the better team in the first half but Celtic were better in the second half," he said.

"But it was a Scottish game and Celtic are nearly always the winner there, except when they meet Rangers.

"They have more national players but I don't think they are a better team than us.

"Celtic will always get results in Scotland but it will be a difficult match for them against us in the Champions League.

"We are at home and in the last five years we have lost two European matches here to Getafe and Manchester United.

"So we are a strong team at home in European competition.

"It is difficult to talk about weaknesses in a team but one thing I have noticed about Celtic is that they concede goals.

"It is not every game that they keep a clean sheet.

"So I'm sure we can score goals against them and that will be important because we have to win the match."