Brendan Rodgers has admitted new Celtic signing Paulo Bernardo was left out of the squad against Rangers due to a lack of football in pre-season.
The Benfica loanee signed on deadline day to head to Parkhead for the season but was not included in the matchday squad to face Rangers.
And Rodgers put the decision down to a lack of game time before making the move to Glasgow.
However, he is hopeful of an immediate impact after the international break with Bernardo set for international duty with the Portugal under-21 side.
Nat Phillips - on loan from Liverpool - also missed the match after discussions with the Anfield medical team over his fitness.
Speaking to BBC Scotland, Rodgers confirmed: "Both players, they haven't had a lot of game time in pre-season.
"Nat comes in, and we'd spoken to Liverpool before signing him and that was one of the considerations that we had, he was going to be ready after the international break.
"We have to respect that - he's a Liverpool player but after the next couple of weeks he'll be fine to be involved.
"And Paulo as well, he's had no football over the course of pre-season he has trained.
"We have to look at him. He'll go away with the Portugal under-21 and hopefully get some game time and then come back and we'll assess it from there."
