Ronny Deila will appeal to Patrick Roberts to eschew his involvement with England’s under-19 squad this summer as he looks to take Celtic into the UEFA Champions League group stages.

The 19-year-old is due to turn out for his country in Germany, but the tournament clashes with Celtic’s qualification fixtures for the tournament.

Deila plans on conversing with the English FA in order the thrash out an agreement, but ultimately it may be the player who has to make his choice.

Said Deila: “It’s something we have to look into. The most important thing is Patrick’s development. He has played a lot of youth football in his life but he has not played a lot of first team football, so it should be simple but you never know in football.

“Our preference, of course, is that he will be with us. We will try to make that happen. It is very important and it is one of the reasons why we brought him here - because he is a very good player but also because these games are vital for us.”

Certainly, though, Deila envisages that the teenager will have a significant role to play as the Hoops close in on the title now.

Roberts shone in Celtic’s defeat of Hearts last weekend but Deila was equally impressed with his attitude in midweek stalemate with Dundee.

“He impressed me on Tuesday because he got more and more active as the game went on,” said the Hoops boss. “He was always going at people and that can take power out of you. But he didn’t stop and that was a positive thing. He is a very confident boy and he is hungry.

“You can see that he wanted to win that game and that is a positive thing to take into the Motherwell match.”

Roberts himself was reluctant to reveal a choice in where he plays his football this summer.

‘They’ve got to decide that between themselves,” he said. “I can’t have any say in that really. I’m happy to play for my country and to play for Celtic. Either way I’m happy.”

At the moment his focus is on playing as much senior football as he can.

“I’ve had people saying ‘he’s young, we’ve got to be careful’ for a few years,” he said. “I was at Fulham when I was very young and then Manchester City and they both said the same things – that it’s all about age.

“As a young player, you want a manager to have faith in you and definitely the manager here has shown faith in me and I’m grateful for that.”

And with the potential to win a title at Celtic this season and take part in a game against Rangers at Hampden next weekend in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final, Roberts is gearing up for the most important games of his young career.

“We’ll get to that after Motherwell, and prepare for it next week,” said Roberts of Rangers. “It should be a very good game as well. These are potentially the biggest moments of my career coming up. From what people say, it’s some derby.

“I’ve seen a few derbies in England but never been to a Scottish derby so it will be great to get involved in that.”