Major Celtic update on injured trio as Brendan Rodgers spells out Sligo Rovers friendly plan

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is hopeful that this international break will give his injured defenders some much-needed recovery time.

Key centre-half Cameron Carter-Vickers has missed four matches with a toe injury but is in line to return for the Premiership top-of-the-table clash with Aberdeen on October 19. Left-back Greg Taylor also sat out Sunday’s 2-1 win over Ross County with a calf problem and will miss Scotland’s Nations League double-header against Croatia and Portugal. Right-back Alistair Johnston provided a goal and an assist in Dingwall but will not travel back to Canada for a friendly against Panama because he has been troubled by a back issue in recent weeks.

“Ali won’t go with the international team, so that gives us a chance to recover him, because he’s been working very well,” Rodgers said. “Cam will be joining training later on in this week and then have a good week leading into Aberdeen. So that’s good.

Alistar Johnston will miss out on Canada international duty. | SNS Group

“Greg, we will just have to wait and see. But on that I thought young Alex Valle did well (against Ross County). Especially the second half, his positioning was a little bit better. But Greg, we hope he’ll be back, if not for Aberdeen, then not long after that.”

Celtic are in friendly action before the visit of the Dons, taking on Sligo Rovers in a friendly in the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday. “I’ll be there,” Rodgers said. “I’ll be taking the team. That plan was in place a few months back.

“Obviously we’ll need to recover some players. But there’s going to be a number of players that need games. So it will be a mixture of our first-team players in the squad and also some of our young players, because it’s my chance to see them. But yes, we’ll go over there, always great to go back home. And then we’ll prepare them for Aberdeen.”