RYAN CHRISTIE will be conspicuous by his absence on Wednesday night, but Brendan Rodgers is more than aware his young protege is making his presence felt where it matters.

Christie will be sitting in the stand when parent club Celtic take on Aberdeen in Pittodrie, no doubt sitting with a half-and-half bespoke tracksuit, such is the nature of the loan agreement which has seen him play a starring in role Aberdeen’s surge to joint-top of the table with the team that plucked him from Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

While in any other country sending one of your players to the closest thing to a title rival, the Celtic manager confessed it is not a thought which entered his head when the time came to plot the next season for his talented young forward. Instead, Rodgers knew Aberdeen, where the burden of expectation and pressure to win exists, would school Christie better than anywhere else to prepare him for what he believes is a prosperous time in green and white.

“That’s never once entered my mind. Of course my responsibility is to Celtic but part of that is the development of players and I look at every case differently and think where they’ll gain the most,” said the Celtic manager. “Some need to be here to understand how we work, some can benefit from being out playing - and he was the type who could grow strength and gain maturity through being game ready.

“Of course I have confidence in my own group, but my responsibility is to the club and the players.

“It’s a totally different expectancy here, but I felt if it wasn’t going to be here, where was the next best place for him go.?

“Looking at the work Derek and Tony Doherty are doing, knowing the expectation on the club and where they’ve been over the past couple of years, then I thought it was a perfect environment for him to go to.

“They’re a club with a great history, wanting to improve.”

And he is.

So far this season the 22-year-old has played 11times for Aberdeen in the Premiership and the Betfred Cup, the single goal to his name not doing him justice. His trickery, along with his gallus flicks and turn of pace, offering a creative force in a dynamic attack that has paid off handsomely so far for Derek McInnes in the league.

“You can see he’s taken on that responsibility,” added Rodgers. “We keep tabs on him in terms of his physical development as well, he’s put on four kilos of muscle, which gives him a strength, so when I watch Aberdeen play, you see him as a real catalyst for their team.

“Which is great, because that in himself shows from where he was, to what he is now, he’s taking steps forward.”

How Aberdeen cope without Christie will be a curious one. While McInnes has had over a week to come up with a solution to that problem, Celtic will be bouncing into arguably their biggest game so far in the Premiership this season with only three days of preparation.

“Yeah [it is relentless] but it’s great,” said the Celtic manager. “We have earned the right to be in the Champions league, they are great games and it’s terrific experience for us,” said the Celtic manager.

“It’s a run of fixtures that is taxing but it can also bring a great moment to your season which is what we want.’

“I’m sure Derek will be happy he has that time to recover and prepare. But you can have too much time. Sometimes it’s easier to be in rhythm to be playing.

“What you do miss out on is a great deal of coaching time but when you have big spaces between games there is a difficulty in terms of the balance.

“When do you recover? Do you overload players? You can de-train them.

“There is that side of it too. Whatever way you arrive into the game it will be a tough game.

“We have been there and won twice but they were still tough games.

“It’s not as if it’s going to be any easier.”