He added: “He’s (Maik Nawrocki) doing very well and trained over the last week or so.

“We only have Stephen Welsh and Liel Abada who will hopefully be back in December time.

“Thankfully that’s starting to ease off and we’re starting to get numbers back in what’s going to be a busy part of the season.

“You always know you will have injuries, I just think at the beginning of the season that aligned with new players coming in and trying to adapt and settle was the challenge.

'The players have come through that really well and things feel stable and we’re excited about things coming forward.'

“In a matter of weeks, Liam has gone from a player playing and thinking he’s leaving Celtic, to playing regularly in the team, to playing in the Champions League and making his international debut.

“That’s how football can work for you if you stay focused and concentrated, and I’m absolutely delighted for him, but now consistency is the name of the game.”

The next two fixtures don’t get much tougher on the domestic and European front, with Hearts at Tynecastle followed by Atletico Madrid at home in the Champions League next Wednesday.

They are two ties, though, that whet the appetite of Brendan Rodgers and he’s excited to see how his team cope with the challenges.

He said: “It’s always a difficult place to go to, Tynecastle, but we will relish the game and the atmosphere.

“Sadly there won’t be as many tickets for our supporters, so we will have to go there with not our usual support.

'We’ve shown this season that we can go into tough venues and get the results that we need and we want to go there and perform well.'

“They’re an outstanding team and Diego Simeone has done an outstanding job over many years at Atletico Madrid.

“He’s been there over a decade and been really successful so we know the challenge and that they are a very good side.

“For us, in our two games, we have been really competitive and we’re not far off from being a good side at this level.

“There were still elements in those games that I was pleased with and we will go into this game and look to give absolutely everything and see if we can learn from the previous two games.”

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Manager: We relish the challenge of Hearts and Atletico Madrid