SKIPPER Scott Brown and last season’s 40-goal man Leigh Griffiths could both miss Celtic’s Champions League opener against Barcelona at the Nou Camp tomorrow night.
But boss Brendan Rodgers believes he has enough to cope against the Spanish giants.
Griffiths missed the weekend 5-1 thrashing of Mark Warburton’s outclassed outfit with a hamstring injury and already looks to be out while Brown could also be sidelined.
However, Rodgers said: “I always say to the players, we don’t need to be heroes.
“If you have an issue or a problem or feel it’s tight then we can get you off. We have a bench, that’s what the squad is about.
“We will see how Scott is. Obviously, we want him playing on Tuesday. He leads the team and is a very respectful guy. He bossed the game in the middle of the park on Saturday. He showed his power and strength and his qualities. Of course, I want that in every game, but if he is not able to play then someone else will have to come in. But let’s wait and see.”
One of those could be Stuart Armstrong. Rodgers revealed that he had told the former Dundee United man to be ready to get the call from the bench after Tom Rogic had had a tough international schedule.
Rodgers added: “Tom has been to Australia in the last two weeks, then played a game in Dubai. So, I felt I was going to only get 55 minutes to an hour out of him. I said to Stuart Armstrong on Friday ‘make sure you’re ready,’ because I felt he could make a real impact.
“He maybe went on earlier than I thought, but I felt we needed more energy to press the game and break forward. And it worked out quite well.
“But what we seen was the spirit within this team. All footballers want to play.”
