Brendan Rodgers is confident that the ugly side of football evidenced this week will not deter other players from coming to Glasgow.

Scott Sinclair was the subject of one man, who has subsequently been charged, of making a monkey gesture towards him when he scored the opening goal at Ibrox last weekend.

That was followed up by a female on social media platform, Twitter, on Tuesday evening posting a photograph of her young daughter snapped against a mural of monkeys; ‘just bumped into Scott Sinclair at Edinburgh zoo.’

It is a pitiful reflection that shines a light on a small but bilious section of society and while Rodgers was unanimous in his condemnation, he insisted that he believes it isn’t something that will make attracting players to the Scottish top flight harder than it already is.

“I would hope not,” said the Hoops boss, who signed Sinclair for Celtic after a protracted summer of negotiations with Aston Villa. “It’s an isolated incident. I would always speak in defence of the people up here and the football clubs here.

“It’s not isolated just to Scotland. It does happen but thankfully it’s much less so in Britain now.

“You have to show your strength together.”

Sinclair has netted 25 goals this season and has been shortlisted for the PFA Player of the Year award. He has already won the Player and Players’ Player of the Year at Celtic’s own annual bash and there is every chance he will follow that up with the Football Writers’ Player of the Year.

And Rodgers is optimistic that the vast majority of those who watch Scottish football can appreciate what Sinclair has brought not only to Celtic but to the league as a whole.

“He is a great boy,” enthused the Celtic manager. “I knew what I was getting which is why I thought he would be perfect for Celtic.

“In the main, the majority of Scottish football supporters - although they know he is a threat - will notice a real upgrade in level of player when they watch him.

“Not only that, he is a real good kid as well. He is a young man who leads his life well, trains virtually every day. All the supporters up here want that type of talent to be here, not to be pushed out of it any way at all.

“My responsibility is to bring the best game to Scotland that we can, particularly Celtic, and for that you need the best players.”

The very fact that Sinclair, at 28, has been abused so visibly for the first time in his career has been something that Rodgers believes was something of an eye-opener, and it underlines the necessity of continual drives to address the issue of racism within football.

“I was surprised by it because I haven’t seen anything like that coming since I’ve been up here,” said Rodgers. “All the stadiums I have been in, the supporters have been passionate.

“You get abuse, of course you do. That’s football and you expect that. But that (racism) is just not what you want.

“A great education has gone on in Britain over the last 20 years in terms of dealing with this sort of thing. There is no place for it in society. There is certainly no place for it in football. At least there has been actions put in place for it for Scotty.

“It just shows you, he is 28 and it’s the first time he has ever experienced anything like that.

“It’s not nice that it has happened up here, because I know the people up here are good people.

“But Scott is strong with it. His team-mates and our supporters are all behind him. We will move on from it and hopefully there won’t be more incidents like it.”

While there have been significant strides taken towards the elimination of racism within society and within the football framework, there clearly remains a problem.

Rodgers, though, believes that constant education programme can continue to enlighten people while going someway to eliminate it entirely from the game.

“You would hope so,” he said. “There has been so much good work which has gone on. It shouldn’t matter what colour you are, what religion you are. It doesn’t matter.

“But it also shows that you have to remain vigilant towards it and ensure everyone is pulling together, because it’s not something you want to see at all in society or in a football game.”