Brendan Rodgers insists Celtic are ready for exhausting workload but reveals the big festive miss he used to LOVE

Brendan Rodgers insists Celtic are ready for a lung-busting run of fixtures that could see them play 23 games in the 80 days before the next international break.

For the first time in four years top flight players won’t benefit from a winter break after the new year. And while Rodgers admits he LOVED the mid-season reset he says his players will enjoy the new challenge thrown up by the monster fixture schedule at home and abroad. The league leaders face Motherwell at Parkhead tomorrow looking to cement their nine-point lead at the top of the Premiership. A trip across Glasgow to face Rangers in the second Old Firm league clash of the season comes in a week’s time with St Johnstone visiting Parkhead in between.

After the new year they have two more Champions League fixtures against Young Boys in Glasgow and Aston Villa away and look set to secure a play-off spot. Success in that and the opening two rounds of the Scottish Cup will mean a total of 23 games in 80 days before the Premiership takes a break for Scotland’s Nations League play-off double header against Greece late in March.

And Rodgers said: “There is no winter break this year and that is what I loved about Scottish football! It used to be amazing to have that break. It still is amazing here but we don’t have that rest period now.

“March is the next break for the players and we just need to keep grinding away. We need to stay focused and the boys have been brilliant in that sense. We have to prepare well and do our analysis.

“A lot of work goes into getting ready for all the games but we are used to it now. That is life at a big club when you are a player and manager. But look, we will enjoy it.”

The champions are well on course for a 60-game season and, while