Brendan Rodgers has hinted that Saturday's clash between Celtic and Motherwell may come too soon for Luis Palma and Alistair Johnston.

The pair are yet to return from international duty and they will not return to the club until Friday.

That means both Palma and Johnston will be assessed late on to determine whether they are fit and physically ready to feature against Kettlewell's Motherwell.

Rodgers explained in his press conference today: "Yeah, well we are still waiting on some to come back, so Luis Palma and Ali Johnston won’t be back until Friday but the other guys have come back well.

"The guys that have played domestically and for Scotland are fine, and the others, yeah fine. So nothing injury-wise at this moment in time to report.

Asked what a Friday return does for Palma and Johnston's chances, Rodgers explained: "Just assess, just assess and see how they are."

Palma was an injury doubt for this weekend after he was taken off during Honduras' CONCAF Nations League semi-final first leg against Mexico, however he featured during the second leg last night and played 97 minutes as his country fell to a crushing defeat on penalties.

Looking ahead to Saturday's clash against Motherwell, Rodgers added: "Yeah, I just think it's the league, there's a number of teams in that position, we had a really good game against them, and Stuart (Kettlewell) is an excellent young coach who’s developing a style there.

"Like I said, I thought when I saw them play they were very well coached and they worked very hard, so for us, we will give them that respect.

"We come back after the international break, and we have to very quickly get the team synchronized again and start where we left off in our last home game, but we are prepared for a tough game but our focus is on working how we want to."