Celtic take on SC Braga in their first home fixture of this season’s Europa League campaign tonight.
Brendan Rodgers will be keen to get a win over the Portuguese club to build on the point he took back to Glasgow in Celtic’s draw with Red Star Belgrade.
The Celtic manager has had injury issues to deal with ahead of the big Europa League tie with Alistair Johnston confirmed out of the clash with Reo Hatate and Auston Trusty back training for the Hoops.
But it was none of these seasoned pros Rodgers was talking about as he praised one of his fearless Celtic first-team players ahead of the SC Braga tie.
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Brendan Rodgers confirms Celtic ‘bright spark’ Colby Donovan is ready for Braga
The Hoops boss was asked if Colby Donovan would be available for tonight after the youngster was left out of the Celtic squad vs Hibs.
And Rodgers couldn’t be more complimentary of the young defender as he confirmed Donovan will be in the Celtic squad.
Rodgers told Celtic TV, “He’s available, yeah. I thought he was outstanding last weekend, he’s been a real bright spark since coming up.
“And I’ve really liked Colby since I came back. Just his personality, what it takes and what it needs to play for Celtic.
“From a mentality perspective, he’s shown real good signs of that early on. You have to manage young players like that.
“Like I said, he played his couple of games with Scotland. He’s played games back-to-back with the first team, so you have to be mindful and manage that.
“But I’ve been so pleased for him and great that he’s available for the squad.”
Rodgers praised Colby Donovan and says young Celtic is ‘frightened of nothing’
Asked how good playing consistently in the Europa League would be good for Donovan’s development at Celtic, Rodgers said he has no problem with pitching the young defender into these big European games.
Rodgers continued, “I think European football gives him that. Obviously, it’s a different type of game as well.
“Obviously, domestically, a lot of it is you’re playing in half a pitch, and over the course of European football, you have different challenges and just dealing with the different environments.
“But I’ve got no qualms about Colby with that. It’s one of the big factors I like about him. He’s frightened of nothing and he shows that in how he trains, and then he takes that into the games.
“And that’s what gives you the confidence to play a young player like that.”
It’s clear that Rodgers really rates young Donovan and the Celtic Academy graduate has put himself right up there in terms of becoming Alistair Johnston’s backup.
The 19-year-old impressed in Celtic’s draw at Red Star and it would not be surprising to see him pitched in against Braga tonight.
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