BRENDAN Rodgers insisted he couldn’t afford to risk Moussa Dembele in last night’s goalless draw against Kilmarnock, but he can’t afford not to put him back in for Sunday’s final league match against Aberdeen.
With Odsonne Edouard out with a season-ending hamstring injury and Leigh Griffiths only fit to resume training today following tonsillitis, Rodgers rested the only fit striker at the club and lined up without one, paying the price with a goalless draw which was the Champions’ seventh home draw of the season.
Going two weeks without match practice ahead of next Saturday’s Scottish Cup final is hardly ideal either, so Rodgers insists Dembele will play against Aberdeen as Celtic get the trophy this Saturday.
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“Kilmarnock have been a tough opponent for us this season,” admitted the Northern Irishman. “But, it wouldn’t matter if you put 11 firemen that deep on a pitch.
“There’s no doubt if I’d had the players available, I’d have played a different system against that low block, but it was too big a risk,” he added. “Moussa is my only fit striker at the moment and he’s coming back from an injury so I couldn’t put him at risk. I need him for the weekend so he should come back in for the Aberdeen game.”
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“It was a controlled and disciplined performance where we restricted Celtic to very few chances,” said his opposite number Steve Clarke, who has now won one and drawn two of his three meetings against the Parkhead side.
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