Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is hopeful that Kieran Tierney will be fit and available after the international break.

The Parkhead full-back missed yesterday’s stalemate against Motherwell after struggling with a calf complaint. Tierney will miss the Scotland friendlies against Costa Rica and Hungary but Rodgers is confident that the defender will be back after that for the game against Ross County.

Stats that emerged at the end of last week showed that Tierney has played more games than any other players around the globe this season – he has 53 appearances so far under his belt – with the time out probably working to his advantage.

“He had a slight issue with his calf towards the end of last week,” said Rodgers. “It wasn’t quite right.

“He couldn’t play against Motherwell and we’ll see how he is for Ross County. He won’t be going with Scotland.”

Meanwhile Rodgers believes that referee Craig Thomson dismissed Motherwell’s Cedric Kipre not for the infringement himself as he struck out petulantly at Scott Brown but for the intent behind it.

“I can probably see a wee bit why he (Robinson) would feel it isn’t,” said Rodgers. “Initially the reaction was that I thought it was a foul.

“Browny looks like he’s getting up, sort of pushing the guy to get up. Then I think the guy’s intent was to kick out.

“The only thing I would say is that Craig Thomson is right up level with it by the time the incident happens, he’s looking straight in at it.

“I suppose it’s like a boxer - if he throws a punch and it doesn’t hit, does that mean it’s not right? Maybe that’s what Craig was seeing. He’s gone to lash out and has caught Browny a little bit, maybe not what you would expect to get sent off for.

“But Craig must have been looking at the intent of it.

“That changes the game, they go to 4-4-1. They stay solid and do well. They defend, we had a couple of moments - we hit the bar and Scott Sinclair had a one versus one but it wouldn’t fall for us.

“Sometimes that’s the way it goes. And these days, so I hear, you are at an advantage when you have 10 men, so we did really well.”

And while Rodgers was disappointed at having to settle for a point he was reluctant to criticise his side who are now ten points clear at the top of the table.

“I thought it was pretty even in the first part of the game,” said the Hoops boss. “Scott had to make a couple of good saves, they had some moments of danger in and around our box.

“Of course when the guy gets sent off, it changes the dynamic of the game.

“I was pleased with how we worked the ball and our positioning. We stayed really calm and didn’t need to force it.

“We just had to wait for the moments to arrive in good positions.

“I thought we did that but we just lacked that little bit of incisive play, either to score or not. We couldn’t get the goal but that was the only disappointment really. It was always going to be a tough game.”