WHEN you are in the trenches, you need to know you can trust the man beside you. Make no mistake, Brendan Rodgers is steeling his players for a war here in Athens this evening, and as they prepare to go into battle together in the Olympic Stadium, one of their number is conspicuous by his absence.

When the Greek champions throw their artillery at the heart of the Celtic backline tonight, it will not be the big Belgian who is standing up to the onslaught. His teammates will be left to do the dirty work, and Rodgers feels for them as they step into the breach without a man that they had supported in his own darkest hour.

As it is, Boyata remains unavailable. Whether that is through injury or through his desire not to risk a move by turning out for the club that employs him, is open to debate, but regardless, Rodgers has backed the men who are here to dig deep and claw their way towards the light of the Champions League play-off round.

“I feel for the players,” Rodgers said.

“This is a guy who has been with us on our journey for the last couple of years. One that we supported as a team and a management in what was a difficult period for Dedryck when we first came in.

“For him to him then grow like he did, we’re now at a period of the season when we really, really need our best players who are fit and available. It’s the guys that I feel for.

“I understand the situation and I respect the situation Dedryck is in. But I feel for his team-mates, really.

“This is a game where we need our centre-half and if you’re fit we would have hoped he’d have been with us.

“Like I say, he’s not, so we just have to move on and look at the players who are here to hopefully get is through.”

As it stands, Rodgers has little option but to go with a partnership of Jozo Simunovic and Jack Hendry in the centre of defence with Boyata posted missing and Kristoffer Ajer suspended. It is at the other end of the field where things may get interesting.

Odsonne Edouard sat out of training last night at the Olympic Stadium, while Moussa Dembele isn't considered fit enough to start the game.

“We’ll assess [Moussa] after training,” said Rodgers. “In the last couple of days, he’s trained very well. In yesterday’s session he looked great – fast and dynamic.

“So, we’ll have a final look, have a chat with him and see how he feels. But I know from himself he’s very keen to be involved.

“It’s always about weighing up the risk but I think he looks in really good shape. It would be too much of a risk to play him from the beginning but I’m sure at some point he’ll play.”

That may open the door to Leigh Griffiths, a man who is no stranger to digging Celtic out of holes at this stage of the season having come up with vital goals against the likes of Stjarnan, Astana and Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the past.

And the 27-year-old believes that a positive result against AEK could completely change the mood music around the club after the relative turmoil of the past week.

“That’s what we want,” said Griffiths. “We want to be on the back pages for the right reasons.

“We see the stuff that is being spoken about. As a club and as a team we are all united, we are all one, and we are all focused on the same job.

“It’s an exciting place to be. We read the papers and we hear what is being said, but as a club, we’re focused on the next game to get the result and move us one step closer to the Champions League.”

Celtic are bracing themselves for a hostile atmosphere in the Olympic Stadium, even though the cavernous bowl is expected to be around 40,000 spectators short of its 70,000 capacity on the night.

Either way, even the hottest of receptions is likely to be water off a duck’s back to Griffiths given the stick he takes on a weekly basis back home.

“That won’t faze me, especially with the abuse I get at Ibrox and Tynecastle,” he said. “I wouldn’t just say those two, nine stadiums out of 10 in Scotland I get abuse.

“This will be a bit easier because I won’t have a clue what they’re saying! It spurs me on to try and silence them as quickly as we can, and that’s by doing what I do best, scoring goals.

“I’ve been given the nod in the last couple of seasons in the qualifiers to go and get the goals to put us through.

“It’s unfortunate this season that I’ve started off the campaign injured, but I’m fully fit now and if the manager calls upon me then I’ll be raring to go.

“It will be a nervy 90 minutes. We all know what the incentive is.”