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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
David Irvine

Brendan Rodgers names heavily rotated Celtic side to face Sligo Rovers

Brendan Rodgers has named his Celtic side to face Sligo Rovers.

The Parkhead club have travelled to Ireland for a mid-season friendly against the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division club.

Rodgers had previously stated the fixture would be used as an opportunity for fringe and youth players to experience more game time.

And the Celtic manager has stuck to his word as he selected a heavily rotated squad for the bounce game.

Scott Bain starts in goal with, with Luis Palma, Luke McCowan, Yang and Alex Valle all given minutes from the start.

Maik Nawrocki and Stephen Welsh are given rare starts at centre-back.

Alistair Johnston, Greg Taylor and Cameron Carter-Vickers all miss the match through injury.

“Ali won’t go with the international team, so that gives us a chance to recover him, because he’s been working very well,” Rodgers said.

“Cam will be joining training later on in this week and then have a good week leading into Aberdeen. So that’s good.


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“Greg, we will just have to wait and see. But on that I thought young Alex Valle did well (against Ross County). Especially the second half, his positioning was a little bit better.

“But Greg, we hope he’ll be back, if not for Aberdeen, then not long after that.”

Rodgers had said ahead of the trip: “I’ll be there. I’ll be taking the team. That plan was in place a few months back.

“Obviously we’ll need to recover some players. But there’s going to be a number of players that need games. So it will be a mixture of our first-team players in the squad and also some of our young players, because it’s my chance to see them.

“But yes, we’ll go over there, always great to go back home. And then we’ll prepare them for Aberdeen.”

CELTIC XI: Bain, Palma, Valle, Yang, McCowan, Nawrocki, Agbaire, Welsh, Bonnar, Dobbie, Turley

SUBS: Morrison, Rice, Robertson, Bonetig, McArdle, Dargie, Davidson, Cannon, Haddow, Isiguzo

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