Brendan Rodgers calls for return of winter break amid 'challenging' schedule

Brendan Rodgers has called for a return of the winter break amid a “really challenging” fixture schedule at this time of year.

Scottish football dropped the annual January break this season as a result of the expanded Champions League and Europa League campaigns.

The Celtic manager, who also confirmed they will likely only have one of their five wingers available for the trip to Ross County on Saturday, is hoping it can be brought back if possible.

Nicolas Kuhn and Daizen Maeda are both doubts for the game in the Highlands after picking up minor injuries with Luis Palma also given some time off after a bereavement and James Forrest still out, leaving Yang as the only available wide player.

Rodgers expects Kuhn and Maeda to both be back in contention for the midweek game against Dundee at Dens Park.

Speaking to the media on Friday, he said: “Nicolas (Kuhn) and Daizen (Maeda) are both doubts for the game tomorrow, but not longer term and they should be fine for Tuesday.

“Luis Palma, sadly, had a bereavement overnight so he won’t travel with the squad and James Forrest is still out.

“At this part of the season nothing is ever perfect, whether it’s pitches or the squad, injuries etc, you can’t wait for everything to be perfect, we have a good squad of players and we go into the game with a mentality to win whoever is playing.”

The fixtures keep coming thick and fast for Celtic, who also have more European games to look forward to at the end of the month when they take on Young Boys and Aston Villa with a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League on the line.

And Rodgers believes losing the winter break will be ultimately detrimental to the quality on show throughout Scottish football.

He said: “Up here we always knew December was going to be a hard schedule, after getting through all of that you had the New Year’s game and then you’d have a couple of weeks to reset, refresh and go again for the second part of the season.

“To now have even more games during the period we’d normally have a break, is a real challenge and you can’t deny that.

“We have three games in the next six days, we play tomorrow then we are travelling again on Tuesday night. We will do all we can to get the best performance possible and we are focused on getting the result, however, it is a really heavy schedule.

“It’s there and we have to get on with it, but it’s certainly not ideal to get the best level of games that we can possibly get.

“I understand that because the Champions League has been extended then we have a couple of extra games in January so it’s a bit of a catch 22.

“It certainly doesn’t help (not having a winter break) and hopefully going forward we can find a solution to that.

“The spotlight will be on ourselves and Rangers in European competitions and we’re going to go into those games on the back end of a really gruelling schedule.

“We have to cope with it and hope that in the future the organisers can look at ways to help with that.”