Brendan Rodgers on what Kelechi Iheanacho ‘couldn’t understand’ about Celtic playing at Rugby Park

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Kelechi Iheanacho has started life as a Celtic player with a bang.

On Sunday, Celtic left it very late to beat Kilmarnock, with debutant Iheanacho coming off the bench and scoring a stoppage-time penalty to win the game.

The 28-year-old is used to playing under Brendan Rodgers, because they did so at Leicester City, as Iheanacho has also played in Spain during his career after coming through at Manchester City.

When Iheanacho was trying to make his way into Manchester City’s first team, they were booming, seen as the elite team in England, and with world-class facilities.

It’s fair to say that things are slightly different in Scotland, and he is now starting to find that out.

• READ MORE: The one subject Kelechi Iheanacho refuses to talk about as Celtic striker asked for explanation

Celtic new boy Kelechi Iheanacho trying to understand Kilmarnock’s artificial pitch

Due to finances, Kilmarnock play on a plastic pitch, just like newly-promoted Livingston, but for professional footballers, and especially one like Iheanacho, who has grown up in the English Premier League, this isn’t the norm.

That’s why Rodgers had to explain to the Nigeria international why Killie’s Rugby Park is an artificial surface, as he told Celtic TV.

The Celtic manager admitted that Iheanacho ‘couldn’t quite understand’, but he feels that once he gets used to it, it will become the norm for him.

“It is different,” said Rodgers on playing at Rugby Park. “What we showed here, in the 5-0 game when we won the league, is that you can still play a really good game and at a really good level.

“We trained on the astroturf at Lennoxtown. For some of the guys, it’s new, like Kelechi. We were saying to him, ‘we are playing on astroturf’, and he couldn’t quite understand.

“But he will understand (after playing at Rugby Park).”

Plastic pitches to be banned in Scottish football

Iheanacho will be delighted to hear that plastic pitches will soon be out of fashion in Scotland because they will be banned.

That won’t sit well with those sides using plastic pitches, but it will delight the likes of Celtic, who dominate everywhere they go.

Back in 2024, Scottish Premiership clubs voted in favour of banning plastic pitches, and it will come into action in 2026.

Sky Sports reported, at the time, that in 2025, Killie will begin playing on grass, so it remains to be seen when those changes will come into effect.