Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers will be without five players for Dundee visit

CELTIC boss Brendan Rodgers is likely to be without five players for the Ladbrokes Premiership visit of Dundee.

Midfielders Stuart Armstrong and Scott Brown missed Scotland’s World Cup qualifying games against Slovakia and Slovenia with respective calf and hamstring injuries while Bosnia defender Jozo Simunovic sat out two matches, reportedly due to a hamstring tear.

Defender Anthony Ralston is still recovering from a slight tear to his meniscus while Australia international Tom Rogic does not return from international duty until Friday.

Rodgers is hoping to have most of the quintet back for next week’s Champions League game at Bayern Munich.

“Jozo, like Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong, is very unlikely to be involved against Dundee on Saturday but all three should train and hopefully be ready for Bayern Munich,” said Rodgers.

“So it was never an injury that was going to keep him out for a sustained period of time but he felt something and he stayed behind to get treatment.

“They (Brown and Armstrong) are great, they have come through very well and will join the squad tomorrow for training.

“Maybe too soon for Saturday but certainly they should be fine for Bayern Munich.

“He (Anthony Ralston) still hasn’t trained yet so we are keeping an eye on him.

“He has spent a real good couple of weeks with the medical team and hopefully he will be in very soon also.

“We are still waiting on Tom Rogic, he has a way to go. He normally arrives the day before so he should be back tomorrow.

“It is very difficult when he has had the travel he has had. There is normally a protocol with him in terms of the way he feels as you can imagine with the travel in such a short period of time so normally when he gets back he needs to recover for at least 48 hours so I think Dundee will be soon for him.”

Before the international break Celtic shared a 2-2 draw with Hibernian – dropping their only two points in September – and resume the domestic campaign in top spot from Aberdeen on goal difference.

Rodgers said: “It was a very busy month. I thought the players were outstanding in their focus with all the games that they had.

“We had a real tough one at the end of it all against Hibs but we came through that and managed to get a point.”