Soccer Football - Pre Season Friendly - Celtic v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Republic of Ireland - July 29, 2023 Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers before the match REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
Brendan Rodgers is confident that Nat Phillips will be available for Tuesday’s Champions League opener away to Feyenoord.
The defender answered Celtic’s defensive SOS when he arrived on loan from Liverpool in the final week of the Transfer Window.
Playing at Ibrox came too early for Phillips but after two weeks of extensive training he started against Dundee today, his first appearance since getting 30 minutes against Wolves in the FA Cup back in January.
Gus Lagerbielke replaced Phillips at half-time today, explaining the substitution Rodgers told The Sun:
Towards the end of the first half he rolled his ankle. He was going to play 60 minutes but it was just precautionary and he should be fine.
With Cameron Carter-Vickers, Stephen Welsh and Maik Nawrocki all out of action for at least another month the last thing that Rodgers needs is another injured central defender.
Gus Lagerbielke turned in a very impressive second half performance when he replaced Phillips while Liam Scales picked up where he signed off at Ibrox two weeks ago.
With five matches to go until the October international break Rodgers will be hoping that that period of fixtures can get Phillips upto speed and provide him with three central defensive options.
And the next last thing he needs is an injury to our left-back. If Scales got injured as well, we wouldn’t have one!!
I hope Brendan knows he has to tighten up the defence, to avoid high scores against us!
It just seems we’re a wee bit short of options on that front!