Celtic WON'T rush Abada or Hatate as Brendan Rodgers bides his time over key duo's starting returns

Brendan Rodgers insists he will NOT rush Liel Abada and Reo Hatate back into Celtic action.

The key Hoops duo returned to the squad at the weekend as the champions dumped Rangers 2-1 at a packed out Parkhead thanks to goals from Paolo Bernardo and Kyogo Furuhashi. The victory put a first defeat on Philippe Clement's record sheet as Ibrox gaffer while it also put eight points between the two sides at the league summit, with the champions having played two games more than their Glasgow rival.

The inclusion of both Hatate and Abada on the bench for the showdown was a major boost for the Celtic faithful with the latter introduced for the final seven minutes plus added on time. Rodgers has explained why the Israeli was thrown on and not Hatate as the duo continue to work hard behind the scenes to get back up to full speed. Speaking to the Celtic website, Rodgers explained: “At this stage of the season, you’re looking at physical condition and what the players can bring.

“I’m not in any rush with those two (Abada and Hatate). It was nice for them to be involved – Liel is slightly ahead of Reo, so that’s why he got his minutes on Saturday. We’ve got one more game and then we’ve got a period of time to get them up to speed, but I don’t need to rush them.”

Celtic rounded off 2023 in the perfect fashion by dumping Rangers and Rodgers wants to kick off 2024 in similar style with three points in Paisley before the winter shutdown comes into force.

He continued: “We played them earlier on in the season and we had a tough game against them, and Stephen always sets up his teams really well. It’s probably be going back to playing against a 5-4-1 or a 5-3-2, so we have to do what we did against Livingston and Dundee and probe and play at