Kieran Tierney’s 90-minute run-out for Celtic was ‘psychologically important’

Brendan Rodgers felt giving Kieran Tierney 90 minutes of action would be a psychological boost for the left-back ahead of Celtic’s Europa League campaign.

The former Arsenal defender, who pulled out of Scotland’s recent World Cup qualifiers with a minor injury, was back in Celtic’s starting line-up on Sunday and played the whole game as the holders beat Partick Thistle 4-0 to set up a Premier Sports Cup semi-final clash with Rangers.

It was Tierney’s first full game since a Euro 2024 warm-up against Finland in June last year and his first in club football since a Copa del Rey victory for Real Sociedad against Osasuna in January of that year.

Rodgers said: “Psychologically, I felt it was important for him. He hasn’t played 90 in a long, long time. But for him just to push himself to get over the hill is very important.

“Especially in the first half, the combination played with him and Sebastian (Tounekti) on that side was outstanding.

“He’s gone through a lot, not just physically, but mentally. There’s a stress on a player that you can never understand, unless you’ve had really bad injuries and what that does to you, what it makes you think about whenever you’re pushing yourself.

“When you’re young and fresh and haven’t got many injuries, then you’re just free and you’re 100 per cent. When you know that you’ve been out for maybe periods of time, it can psychologically hurt you.

“But he’s getting over all that and every day getting better and improving.”

Rodgers named a strong team at Firhill with only goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and forward Daizen Maeda rested from the start out of the players who look certain to be involved from the outset in Wednesday’s encounter with Red Star Belgrade in Serbia.

“Any good win, good performance, clean sheet, going into Europe was always going to be good. Lots of players got good game time,” the Celtic manager said.

“People maybe look and think, well, why did I not make more changes? But actually, a lot of the players haven’t been playing so much, with the international break. Some of those who went didn’t get a lot of game time. So, if they didn’t play, it could have been a long time before they were playing.

“The guys coming off the bench impacted the game as well and I look forward to that game now on Wednesday.”

Anthony Ralston will train ahead of the trip to Belgrade but Rodgers stressed that he has a battle for his place with Colby Donovan, the 19-year-old who has deputised for the injured Scotland international and Alistair Johnston in recent weeks.

“Listen, there’s no-one guaranteed,” Rodgers said. “If you’re playing and performing, you’re in the team. There’s nobody that I would ever say is a definite starter in any position. You train not just to play, but you train to fight. If you’re training and fighting and running and working, then you’ll get the chance to play.

“But you also have to be aware of his age, the number of games coming into the system. He (Donovan) has shown that he can be a first-team player.”