Liel nightmare is a battle Brendan has never faced

THERE is not much Brendan Rodgers hasn’t seen in more than 700 games as a gaffer when it comes to man management.

When he was at Swansea there was the call in the middle of the night telling him stat man Steven Caulker was in a south Wales jail after a scrap in a nightclub.

At Liverpool he had his hands full with Luis Suarez. The Uruguay legend was accused of racially abusing Patrice Evra early in his reign – and that was before he started biting people.

Don’t even mention Mario Balotelli from back then. The big striker was nuttier than a squirrel’s lunchbox.

It probably felt similar in his first spell at Celtic trying to keep Leigh Griffiths on the straight and narrow.

Rodgers has proved to be a master at man management though.

There were calls from then PM David Cameron to bin Suarez back then but instead he penned a new deal and was player of the year the season the Reds were a Stevie G slip away from being champs.

Griff got back in his team and fire Celtic to a couple of Trebles. So Rodgers is as good as it gets with this stuff.

But this situation at Celtic right now with Liel Abada is different. This isn’t a daft boy to be tempted with a carrot or battered with a stick. It will take more than an arm around the shoulder to deal with this most delicate of scenarios.

It’s simply hard to see any way Abada can remain at Celtic in the short, medium or long term. There are some fans who only see the world through the prism of their clubs and can’t get their heads around this.

But they should try to put themselves in Abada’s shoes. This is a young lad in a foreign country while his homeland is involved in an horrific conflict. And when he goes to his work there are people there with flags of the nation who are at war with his.

Celtic fans can clap him an cheer him all they want, try to suggest they can separate the individual and his nationality. But that’s absolute nonsense.

Abada’s big pal Nir Bitton departed a while ago and the former hero – who gave nine years of trophy-laden service to the club – ended up getting abused on social media by the same fans who used to love him.

At the end of the recent match at Easter Road, Abada was straight up the tunnel while his team-mates celebrated with the away support.

He is under enough pressure from his homeland and must have

Forget what side of the fight fans fall on. This kid is living it

felt he can’t be seen to pandering or playing along with the people who have voiced such loud support for the state who attacked his own.

Forget about what side of the fight fans fall on. This kid is living it. He had family and friends who are living in this nightmare. This is not a flag or a chant for him. This is real life.

Celtic should have allowed him to go on loan in January, or even encouraged a permanent transfer. Listen, global events have probably knocked about £10million off his value.

Celtic will be lucky to get £5m but this is now about more than business. It’s about a human problem that needs a humane solution.