Celtic's hopes of cutting the gap to Hearts at the top of the Scottish Premiership hit a snag after their trip to Aberdeen, due to be shown live on Sky Sports, was postponed less than four hours before kick-off.
Martin O'Neill's side were due to visit Pittodrie on Wednesday evening as they looked to move to within three points of the summit.
However, Aberdeen were concerned by an area of the pitch at the Merkland end of the stadium following what the hosts called "prolonged rain over the last few weeks", and called for a pitch inspection.
Fourth official Greg Soutar checked the surface at 4pm and found the ground to be too waterlogged for the game to go ahead.
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Souter told Sky Sports News: "There was an area of concern raised about the bottom end within the penalty area. I've had a look at it, there's extremely soft mud, it's moving when you put studs in it and there's concern player safety when they're running in it that their studs will just slip.
"The ball's not bouncing in that area either. Player safety is paramount and that's not something I could ensure. It's not one I thought was in doubt, it's a fairly straightforward decision."
A new date for the fixture is yet to be announced.
The year has got off to a wet start in Aberdeenshire, which recorded the wettest January since 2016 with 124mm of rainfall, more than double the monthly average.
Celtic had hoped to take advantage of leaders Hearts' slip-up on Tuesday night, after Derek McInnes' side were beaten 1-0 by St Mirren.
The Scottish Premiership match between Dundee and Motherwell was also postponed on Wednesday afternoon due to a waterlogged pitch at Dens Park.
Alan Burrows, Aberdeen CEO, gave his sympathies to those travelling fans who had already set off for Pittodrie but said the Dons had originally requested a pitch inspection at 1.30pm, more than six hours ahead of kick-off.
He told Sky Sports: "We were really desperate to have the game on, we had a big crowd set to come in. We've got some new players we've just brought in during the transfer window who were likely to feature so there was a lot of excitement about that.
"But the small area in front of the Merkland Stand was the worse for wear in what has been a really difficult spell of weather in this area of Scotland over the last month or so.
"The weather hasn't stopped raining - we're on 51 days of consecutive rain and snow in Aberdeenshire, I think. We tried to do as much work as we could to make it playable, but we just couldn't get it right.
"We've been looking at it through the day, there was a large puddle in the six-yard box when we came in but underneath it it's very soggy as well.
"Around 1.30pm we asked the SFA for someone to come and look at the pitch - it's taken a bit longer unfortunately, and because of that the postponement's after 4pm which is unfortunate. I understand some people will have already had to set off, and we apologise for that."
(c) Sky Sports 2026: Aberdeen vs Celtic postponed due to waterlogged pitch after 'weeks of prolonged rain' at Pittodrie
