BRENDAN Rodgers has hit out at his Celtic team being forced to play a League Cup semi-final just three days after their crunch tie in Munich.

The Scottish champions play Bayern on Wednesday night in the Champions League before returning to Scotland in the early hours of Thursday morning.

That gives little time for Rodgers to prepare his team to face Neil Lennon's Hibernian at Hampden at 12.15pm on Saturday.

With both that game and the meeting of Rangers and Motherwell the following day being shown live on BT Sport, the Celtic manager believes common sense should have prevailed and his side's tie moved to the Sunday.

"We are certainly not helped by it," said Rodgers. "I believe it is TV. We are one of the clubs who has a high percentage of players away on international duty. After the international we came back and we played on the Friday on telly.

“This here, you only need to look at the numbers of games, the levels of games, the travel that the players are making… So I was very, very surprised. They could have been kinder to us but we have to get on with it.

“I was assuming, which was maybe a mistake of mine, that common sense would come into it and that the team who were playing in a high level game in Germany on the Wednesday night would play on the Sunday instead of an early kick-off on a Saturday.

“I am not sure who [is responsible]. I would assume it is telly but certainly we could have been helped. There is no doubt. I am sure Lenny [Hibs boss Neil Lennon] will be delighted because it can make a huge difference.”