Rodgers confirms Celtic will look to sign a right-back

Brendan Rodgers acknowledges that Celtic will need to dive into the transfer market in January to add some defensive reinforcements after suffering a relative injury crisis in the early part of the season.

Eager to not see his sides unbeaten domestic record derailed, Rodgers wants to make sure that he has a deep enough squad to cope with the rigours of competing across multiple fronts.

As quoted by the Sunday Post, Rodgers confirms that he will look to add a right-back to his squad in the January transfer window with both Mikael Lustig and Cristian Gamboa being among several members of the Celtic squad set to travel to Russia for the World Cup next summer.

Everyone is happy for our guys who are going to the World Cup. You would have seen Mikael’s celebrations during the week, and he’s come back full of enthusiasm. That’s contagious.

Tom Rogic? God, if anybody deserves to be at the World Cup, it’s him, given how far he’s had to travel, which has been constantly all around the world.

Cristian Gamboa will be there as well, and if Erik Sviatchenko gets into Danish squad in the second part of the season, then there’s a chance for him as well.

Gambo and Lustig are both right-sided defensive players, so we have to prepare for that in the next window to ensure we’re covered.

We do have Tony Ralston, who will be here with us. But we don’t want to be short as we have been in certain areas over the last two summers. So January will be a big window for us.

The 2018 World Cup will overlap with the early rounds of Champions League qualification that Celtic will be competing in should they qualify, and Rodgers admits that a lack of a summer break will be tough on his players.

It is punishing to say the least. Normally you get a wee breather in there. And there are the other games you need to play to get fit, and the league may be up and running.

So it’s certainly not made any easier for the team which is trying to qualify for the Champions League.

Reports surfaced earlier this month that Rodgers was looking at defensive reinforcements on the whole with Reading’s Liam Moore the club’s top target, but the £5m-rated centre-back has also been linked with Premier League outfits West Ham, West Brom and Stoke.