Brendan Rodgers reveals major injury doubt over key Celtic star ahead of Borussia Dortmund clash

Celtic defender Cameron Carter-Vickers is facing a race against time to be fit for the Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday.

The US international centre-back has been ruled out of Saturday's trip to Perth to face St Johnstone in the William Hill Premiership after missing the 5-2 win over Falkirk in the Premier Sports Cup last weekend.

The 26-year-old defensive linchpin has been nursing a foot injury throughout the early weeks of the season but he has not played since being withdrawn during the second half of the 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League.

"Yeah, Cam will miss tomorrow," manager Brendan Rodgers confirmed in his Friday pre-match press conference. "He's got pain on his big toe joint. We just have to look at that each game [as it comes]. He's been playing with it for a little while but we've got to try and manage it now because he was in pain in the Bratislava game. Hopefully it will settle down quite quickly and we'll see where it's at for Tuesday."

Asked if Carter-Vickers is ruled out of the trip to Dortmund, Rodgers replied: "Difficult to tell. We're just concentrating on this game then we'll see where he is at over Sunday and Monday."

Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers (right) is replaced by Auston Trusty during the 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group) | SNS Group

Rodgers does not believe the injury will require any major treatment.

“It’s not that, it’s just the tolerance of pain,” he said. “He’d gone through a lot and pushed him through a lot, but it’s not getting any better and he was having to go through too much pain really.

“He’s a tough character, Cam, but we just felt that it’s obviously one of those ones that with rest it will self-correct. But there comes a point where you could just see he wasn’t quite at the level that he would want to be at and I would want him to be at, and when it’s at that point you want to take him out and let him recover.”

Full-back Alistair Johnston will return to face St Johnstone after recovering from a minor injury and training all week.