RONNY Deila issued his Celtic players with a stark warning about the dangers of Twitter this week after suspending Anthony Stokes for a fortnight due to his posts on the social networking website.

Deila has also defended the punishment which was meted out to the Republic of Ireland internationalist for his latest off-field indiscretion - while insisting the striker still has a future at Parkhead.

Stokes incurred the wrath of his manager just hours before kick-off in the Ladbrokes Premiership match against Inverness Caledonian Thistle up in the Highlands last Sunday.

The 27-year-old, who last played a first team game for the Scottish champions back in August, went online to vent his frustration about being left out of the match day squad.

Deila branded his actions – which the forward subsequently apologised for - as “disrespectful” after the 3-1 victory and accused the former Arsenal, Sunderland and Hibs man of not being a team player.

The Norwegian has declined to ban his squad from posting on Twitter outright - but he confirmed he had spoken to his players and urged them not to write anything which could be detrimental to the Celtic team in future.

“Everyone can have their opinion about things,” he said. “I will never say to players ‘you are not allowed to do it’. Because it’s a part of their personality and there’s a part of it that can develop them and they will understand in the end. They have to learn from their experiences.

“What I say to the players is – talk about yourself and don’t involve the team and Celtic in a negative way. Keep your focus on what’s happening on the training ground. I’ve said that to them this week. It’s not many that’s on it – just some players. Everyone has their own thing. But it has to the best for the team.”

Kris Commons escaped disciplinary action despite mouthing off at assistant manager John Collins in the dugout after being substituted in the second half of the Europa League game against Molde back in October.

However, Deila has confirmed that Stokes, who has been told to stay away from training for two weeks, had been reprimanded on this occasion as a result of his previous offences as well.

He said: "Everyone understands you don't get suspended for one incident. I'm not stupid, I understand better than that. There have been incidents before and now we feel we have to put down a marker.

"I think he will be here after January. But every player has to make improvement and Anthony needs to do the things we talked about to get playing time again."

Meanwhile, Deila has confirmed that his captain and first choice central midfielder Scott Brown, who has been sidelined with a knee problem, could be out for longer than three months if his injury requires surgery.

“He will wait for four weeks and hope that everyone is growing the right way,” he said. “Then a month later we hope he will be back.

“If after the first four weeks it’s not going the right way then we will have to operate and he will be out for two to three months from that point. I don’t think it will be the season, maybe two or three months from any operation.”

Deila has also defended his decision to put on Charlie Mulgrew, who has been ruled out for up to two months after a recurrence of his hamstring tendon problem, as a substitute in the Europa League game against Ajax last week.

“He was okay to play – everyone agreed that,” he said. “He trained the whole week and had trained for weeks before that and we felt that 20 minutes would be okay. Then he pulled it again and we are back to the start.”

There will be a pitch inspection at Celtic Park at 9.30am this morning ahead of the Ladbrokes Premiership match with Hamilton Academical.