CELTIC manager Brendan Rodgers has held talks with Scotland manager Alex McLeish during the week over the availability of his players for the national side’s summer tour of South America.

Scotland will take on Peru in Lima on May 29, before travelling to play Mexico in Mexico City on June 2, and Rodgers has concerns about some of his players joining up with the squad after a gruelling season that began last July.

But while Rodgers has expressed those concerns to McLeish, he admitted that a consensus between the two managers’ positions was still a little way off.

“I had a good chat with Alex [on Wednesday],” said Rodgers. “I was open with my preference in terms of where it sits and where it’s at, but you understand that it’s also the careers of players as well. But we’ll find a solution that will be balanced.

“There are some of the guys that will want the games, because they will maybe have missed chunks of the season, but there will be other boys who have played lots of games since last June that won’t need them.

“It would be beneficial from both Celtic and Scotland if they have the breather, because very quickly they will be back into it again and then they are going to be needed in the proper games coming into the autumn.

“It’s always the case that if you have a few of your teams doing well, then hopefully that can help the national team.

“What I love about the Scottish boys is that they are very patriotic. They actually love playing for Scotland, and I think there is a real core of players there that can do very, very well.

“It gives me great pride to see he boys from here going and taking that energy and that intensity into playing for the national team, it’s great to see.”

Rodgers was meanwhile fulsome in his praise for the standard of the Scottish Premiership this season, singling out the likes of Kilmarnock, Hibernian and Motherwell for helping to raise the quality of the league competition.

But while he concedes it has been tougher on the domestic front, he isn’t sure that will stand them in any greater stead when European competition rolls around again.

“Having a greater domestic challenge, I’m not sure helps us against PSG,” he said. “The competition is good, of course, but it’s such a difference when you jump from domestic into that level. It’s a huge jump for us, but one we have to find a way, like any Scottish club in Europe, to do the best we can.”