STEVEN GERRARD hopes midfielder Lassana Coulibaly will be fit for the crunch ties with Ufa and Celtic.

The Malian has missed the last three matches with Maribor, Kilmarnock and Ufa after sustaining a thigh injury late on in the win against St Mirren at Ibrox.

He won’t feature in the Premiership clash with Motherwell tomorrow but Gerrard is keen to have him involved for a huge double-header next week.

He said: “Sunday will be too soon, I’m taking a punt on that, but I don’t think he’ll be ready.

“We are going to try and do everything we can to have him ready for next week.

“We have three big games, Sunday is obviously my focus, but we’d love to have him involved in the two that come after it.”