Phillips appearance in doubt as Rodgers addresses his Livingston concern

I think if you have players with knee injuries or situations like that then sometimes the surface doesn’t help, but it’s no excuse for us…

Nat Phillips could go into Celtic’s clash against Lazio with just one full appearance for Celtic.

The defender was signed on loan from Liverpool in the final week of the transfer window but rolled his ankle in the win over Dundee and was substituted at half-time.

Phillips missed the 2-0 defeat against Feyenoord on Tuesday which saw Gus Lagerbielke sent off and suspended from the match against Lazio on October 4.

On Sunday Celtic play on Livingston’s plastic pitch which isn’t the sort of surface that you’d want to play on if there are any sort of injury concerns.

QUESTION: Depending on whether or not you’ve got Nat available this weekend – given that you’re going to miss Gustaf Lagerbielke for the game against Lazio – you’re going to have to think about getting someone else into the team to get them up to match speed in the event that they may need to be used?

RODGERS: We’ll assess that, but we’ll see. It’s just about having him fit and available, and then we’ll assess it from there

QUESTION: Does the pitch at Livingston make you think twice about selecting any players who are just coming back?

RODGERS: It always does. I think if you have players with knee injuries or situations like that then sometimes the surface doesn’t help, but it’s no excuse for us. We know that we have to play on artificial pitches at some points throughout the season, so we go there and anticipate a tough game and we look to get the result.

If Phillips doesn’t play against Livingston he’ll only have next Saturday’s match at Motherwell to prepare for the game against Lazio.

Tomoki Iwata is the next option to play in defence, making his first appearance of the season against Feyenoord when he came off the bench.

Yuki Kobayashi has been left out of Celtic’s UEFA squad and hasn’t played since picking up an ankle injury in the pre-season friendly against Yokohama F Marinos.