Celtic boss Neil Lennon has said that he doesn't want to lose goalkeeper Craig Gordon but understands the player's concerns about not being first choice at the club.

Gordon is out of contract next summer and is free to talk to other clubs from January. The 36-year-old has been second choice at the champions with on-loan Southampton keeper Fraser Forster keeping him out of the team and he said last week that there had been no talks over a contract extension, while stating that he wanted to be playing more regularly.

Lennon started Gordon in the Europa League dead rubber against Cluj but Forster returned for Sunday's 2-0 home win over Hibernian. The Celtic boss said he understood why Gordon was considering his future but was clear he didn't want to lose him.

"I had a wee chat with Craig on Saturday," he said.

"He's a player I'd be loath to let go or want to see go out the door because he's a quality goalkeeper.

"Fraser is the number one currently and if anything happened to him then Craig is a ready-made replacement to step in.

"From a selfish point of view I want him to stay. He might have his own principles and want to play himself.

"It's a situation not of Craig's making. He's a great pro and I get the fact he might want to play more games."

Another fringe player who was given a game against Cluj was Scott Sinclair, who has also said that he wants more opportunities and Lennon said there would be discussions with the player but that others were ahead of him on merit.

Celtic are two points clear at the top of the table after goals from Jeremie Frimpong and Odsonne Edouard handed them victory over Jack Ross' Hibs side.

Ross said: "I have said to the players that I don't want a mindset that we are happy to come to places like this and get a pat on the back and say we were competitive but lost the game.

"But we did remain competitive, so I'm slightly contradicting myself.

"But we were playing against a good team with good players. I thought they were at it today which meant we had to play reasonably well to stay in the game and we did that."