Celtic stars face fight for starting role

BRENDAN RODGERS has warned Scott Brown and Olivier Ntcham they will not automatically walk back into an in-form Celtic team.

Captain Brown has been sidelined with a calf injury since hobbling out of a 4-2 victory over Hibs last month, while fellow midfielder Ntcham has not played since being substituted with a hamstring strain in the Betfred Cup semi-final victory over Hearts at BT Murrayfield.

In their absence, Celtic have been free-scoring and enter today’s Premiership game at Livingston with a chance to go top of the table having scored 20 times in the last four league matches.

While Brown remains the undisputed squad leader and French Under-21 cap Ntcham

has been rewarded with a lucrative new four-year contract, the form of Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie means Rodgers will have a selection dilemma when they regain full fitness.

McGregor and Christie were key men in Celtic’s best all-round showing of the season on Thursday night, a 2-1 victory over RB Leipzig that has breathed fresh life into the club’s Europa League campaign.

‘We want all the boys back,’ said Rodgers. ‘But it’s what you want as a coach — the guys who have come into the team have been brilliant.

‘We have a bunch of players playing at a really high level and setting the standard. The guys behind are going to have to work really hard to affect that.’

Livingston will offer a very different test today, not least on account of the artificial pitch at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

‘Whether we’ve had good, bad or indifferent results in Europe, domestically these boys have been a credit to the club,’ added Rodgers.

‘It’ll be a tough game — but we’ll be ready for it.’