Rodgers hit by injury pile-up
BRENDAN RODGERS refused to make any excuses for his players after Kilmarnock inflicted only the second domestic defeat of his tenure as Celtic manager.
But he is facing up to an injury crisis as the club prepares to face Russians Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League.
Rodgers watched two of his starting back three depart injured before halftime in the 1-0 defeat at Rugby Park to add to a casualty list that stretched to eight names before the game kicked off.
Dedryck Boyata
(groin) and Kristoffer Ajer (ankle) both hobbled off, but refused to blame Killie’s artificial pitch for instigating his side’s downfall.
‘I don’t want to go on about the pitch,’ declared Rodgers. ‘I’ve said many times before that you never get a good game but we have been here three times before and won.
‘It can be an issue, especially when players come off with groin and ankle injuries. We’ll just have to assess it and we will see about the others.
‘When you lose two out of your back three, it makes it hard — but I wouldn’t use that as any excuse.’
Celtic’s injury list is extensive.
Craig Gordon, Mikael Lustig, Marvin Compper, Stuart Armstrong, Jonny Hayes, Tom Rogic, Patrick Roberts and Leigh Griffiths are all sidelined.
Rodgers will now hope for good news on Boyata and Ajer, with Zenit due in Glasgow a week on Thursday for the first leg of the Europa League tie.
He does have defensive cover. Jozo Simunovic, rested for yesterday’s match on account of his history with knee trouble, remains fit and available, while Jack Hendry emerged physically unscathed from his debut after moving from Dundee in midweek.
‘It was a good game for Jack to come into,’ said Rodgers. ‘I think he did fine. He’s just getting used to his team-mates.
‘After this game he will feel the expectations of playing for Celtic.’
The match was settled by Youssouf Mulumbu’s winning goal in the 70th minute and Rodgers had no quibbles with the result.
‘We were disappointing,’ he stated. ‘There have been very few games where I would have said that in my time here, but I thought in all aspects of it we weren’t so good today.
‘Defensively, we didn’t have a great deal to do but I didn’t think we were aggressive enough.
‘I accept the surface is dreadful but we weren’t good enough in our creativity. We could have played until midnight and not scored.’
Scott Brown echoed his manager’s sentiments and admitted Celtic need to offer more when faced with a team as determined and organised as Killie.
He said: ‘They defended quite well and we just couldn’t get the chances we would have liked.
‘Their players celebrated in front of our supporters like they had won the World Cup.’