Celtic will give Australian midfielder Tom Rogic until the last minute to prove his fitness ahead of tomorrow’s Betfred League Cup semi-final against Hearts at Murrayfield.
The 25-year-old missed Thursday’s Europa League defeat to Leipzig with a knee injury but Rodgers is prepared to wait on the player whom he believes comes to the fore on the big occasion.
“Tom Rogic’s knee has been bothering him but we’ll see how the reaction to that is over the next couple of days,” said the Celtic manager.
“You see the form he’s been in these last few weeks. That real aggressive aspect has returned to his game and he’s linked up well with James Forrest so, if we can get him in, he’s a big-game player. He enjoys these occasions and normally gets the big goals in the big games so it would be good to have him available.”
Celtic captain Scott Brown will not make the game as he continues to deal with an ongoing calf issue while Jozo Simunovic has also joined the casualty list at the club after going over awkwardly on his ankle in Germany on Thursday night.
Leigh Griffiths remains sidelined but Rodgers was keen to dismiss unsubstantiated social media reports that the striker had been posted missing from the club this week.
Rodgers revealed that Griffiths underwent further scans on a calf injury yesterday and has insisted that he has been in full contact with his throughout his time out of the team.
"It's all social media," said the Celtic manager.
"He hasn't been well. He didn't go away with the international team, then he got injured and then he has been ill for a number of days now.
"I spoke to Leigh when we trained at Murrayfield to check in how he was. He's been ill so he's been kept away from the squad.
"He has been connecting every day with our head physiotherapist, Tim (Williamson), and he probably gets about 20 messages a day off him, so there's no chance you're not connecting with Leigh.
"We just want to get him fit and back into the squad again. He went away for some more scans on Friday with Tim.
"So that's just the way it is sometimes with social media. There's always a bit of tittle-tattle which runs and takes its own life with these stories. He's very much in contact with the club.
“We want to get him back. He’s an important member of our squad. We’ve got one fit striker, a young striker, at the moment, so hopefully we can get him back fit and well very soon.”
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