Brendan Rodgers has revealed that Carl Starflet was left out of his Celtic starting line-up against Ross County due to a possible transfer exit from Parkhead.
The Swedish international was left out as Celtic defeated their Highland opponents 4-2 in the east end of Glasgow on the opening day of the Scottish Premiership season.
Rodgers opted to start Cameron Carter-Vickers and new signing Malik Nawrocki as his central defensive pairing and the pair impressed before Starflet was introduced on the 70-minute mark.
The defender appeared to applaud the Celtic support as he made his way on to the pitch and with Celtic braced for bids, it looks like he may have played his last game for the club.
Rodgers explained: “Carl could leave and obviously hence the reason for not starting him. It might be something that goes through next week, but we shall see.
“He's obviously been a fantastic servant here and he's a great guy and really committed, but there are reasons why he may want to move on, but we'll see how that looks.”
Rodgers handed David Turnbull a rare start for Celtic after hardly featuring under former manager Ange Postecoglou.
The Scotland international grabbed his opportunity and bagged two goals in an impressive display at the top of a diamond midfield.
Rodgers continued: Yeah, he took his goals well. He's very efficient, David obviously, the penalty was very cool, and he was there at the back-post and he finishes from a great cross from Matt O'Riley and should have had another one with a good run into the box.
“I think that's David's game, he is very good on the ball and his timing is very good and he can finish so I'm pleased for him.”
On the game itself, Rodgers admits his team started slowly, but he was delighted to get off to a winning start. He added: “I think the result was a good result. I thought Ross County started very well and I thought we were slow to start. I thought we had some really good moments with the ball, but we need to be much better against the ball.
“We conceded two goals where we have to be better and some of the half chances - especially in the first half. but I think it's what you expect a little bit. It's never going to be perfect in the first game but what's important is to win and when we played well, we showed some great moments with the ball but collectively we'll get better.
“It is just the time of the season, it's the first game. Players still finding their fitness. Tony Ralston's first 90 minutes he's played, Cameron Carter-Vickers has just joined us in training and Maik Nawrocki is just in the door so it's just guys getting up to speed and fitness.
“Like I said, it's always good whenever when maybe you don't play to the top of your game, but you can win will, you give Ross County and Malky Mackay credit as well because they came here and made it very difficult with their man-marking style. It's tough to play against and you have to really work hard to find the spaces, but when the players did that, they scored some very good goals.”
