He said: "At this moment in time he's due to play his last game for us at Aberdeen and then he's due to fly out to meet up with the Australian squad on the 27th, so that would mean him missing the last game.

"That's not something we're overly happy about because we want to work in a relationship with the federations.

"I spoke with Graham Arnold, the manager, and I had two really good days of trying to ensure relations are good between international teams and club teams and we can build those relations.

"But you do that through working together and what is the best for each player.

"We feel Tom can play and be available for the 29th and fly out after the game and meet up in Dubai on the 30th morning and still be there virtually a week before he's due to play his first game.

"Tom wants to play in the game but he also wants to play for Australia. It's a position the player doesn't need to be in.

"It's a showcase game, the Celtic-Rangers game. They're great games, he's been great in them for us and, of course, he can still play in it and travel and recover and prepare for the cup competition in January.

"So the club are looking into it more and we hope we can find a sensible solution, which allows him to play and then travel and then be ready for his game."

Meanwhile, Rodgers is hopeful Odsonne Edouard will be back for next week's crunch games against Aberdeen and Rangers.

The French forward came off with an abductor problem in the 3-0 win over Motherwell on Wednesday night, leaving the Hoops with no recognised striker.

The former Liverpool  boss said: "He (Edouard) won't be available for the game tomorrow but we are very hopeful that next week he will be ready.

"He had a soreness of his abductor. Odsonne has played a lot of games and as I said before we have been unable to take him out because of the position we are in.

"He is not available for tomorrow but he should be fine for next week."

Christie was carried from the field on a stretcher during the Europa League game against Salzburg but Rodgers said: "Ryan is available, back in the squad.

"He is very keen to get back as quick as he can but we have to ensure that he is not pushing it too much as well.

"But he has trained now for a few days and looked really good."

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