BRENDAN RODGERS has dismissed fears of fatigue as Celtic bid to bounce back from their Euro woe.
Just four days after defeat to Feyenoord in their Champions League opener, Celts face a tough trip to Livingston tomorrow lunchtime.
Lions boss David Martindale told SunSport this week he’s aiming to take advantage of any hangover.
But Hoops boss Rodgers said: “It’s no excuse. The guys are now used to it. A lot of those guys have been playing the past couple of seasons in European football, that’s part of the gig here.
“That’s part of moving on quickly. You can’t dwell on the games.
“You have 24 hours when you can suffer.
“But the strength is to get up and fight the next time and get going again quickly. There will be no mental fatigue. We’ll be ready.
“Davie’s a good man. I like him and I look forward to seeing him.
“Of course you have to think positive.”
Rodgers is in no doubt the Tony Macaroni Arena plastic pitch is a leveller.
Celtic crashed out of the Viaplay Cup on Killie’s artificial surface.
Rodgers added: “We’ll finish off our preparation later for the game. There are always challenges with the surface.
“I remember being up here before and the away games were a challenge.
“We were on a run of games where we’d scored a loads of goals and went to play Livingston and drew 0-0.
“It’s the pitch — the speed of the game is a lot slower.
“If your defence is packed out then in order to move teams around that have low blocks and lots of bodies there, you are relying on the speed of the pitch.
“The quicker the ball moves, the quicker they need to move.
“If it’s a slow pitch, they don’t have to move quite the same way.
“Then that density makes it really difficult.
“You could put 11 teachers, journalists or binmen in there and it’s a challenge. You have to get over that.”
With the games now coming thick and fast, Rodgers is also backing his players to handle the pressure of an intense schedule. He said: “I don’t think that will be an issue.
“If you look at our five games, we’ve won four and drawn one, and have steadily made progress throughout.
“It’s just part of the gig — you’ve got to get up to the level for the big European nights.
“But very quickly you change the mindset to be ready for domestic competition.
“And I’ve got no doubt that we will be.
“There’s no time to take a breath and the boys will find that out over the course of the season.
“That’s the challenge of being at a big club like this — the games come thick and fast and there’s that demand to win.
“But we create the noise within ourselves.
“And that noise is really positive and we’ll be ready to go come Saturday.”
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