No one would blame Celtic and its players should they be exhausted following Wednesday night’s trip to Ross County. After all, it will be three games in six days — the first two of which were the highest of emotional outputs possible.
However, the key were if AFTER, as manager Brendan Rodgers sees his side as one of the fittest in Scottish football.
With a trip to Dingwall followed by trips to Aberdeen on the weekend and Borussia Monchengladbach during the mid-week, fitness is of utmost importance.
That kind of fixutre congestion also has some complaining about how the SPFL has hindered and not helped the champions beyond its borders.
Rodgers and Co. seem to be taking all of it in stride.
“I suppose it’s just the draw isn’t it? Listen, it is what it is. Of course it will be tough, they are two long shifts. But that’s why we’re in this and it’s really enjoyable.
“We considered staying in Dingwall, training and then on to Aberdeen. But we’re going to have a nice drive up, enjoy the scenic route in the afternoon and then we’re going to fly back after the game.”
The same will happen for the trip to Aberdeen and then it is off to Germany on Monday, where rest and body maintenance will take priority.
However, Rodgers isn’t worried about his sides ability to rapidly recover. He designed his training for just that from the very get go, all part of his revolution at Celtic Park.
In fact, Rodgers believes this squad needed some leaning when he arrived at Paradise this summer. He believed the emphasis on nutrition wasn’t enough, as the fitness level of the squad needed some upping.
“I’ve just come in, myself and my staff, we’ve brought in how we need the players to be in terms of being a certain weight in order to even train with the team.
“Some players want to play in the team but you can’t train with the team if you’re not even at the right weight.”
Rodgers has set out both captain Scott Brown and his first signing of the summer, Scott Sinclair, as examples of players who understand where they need to be in terms of fitness and nutrition to best help the squad succeed.
"“You look at Scott Sinclair, for example. How robust he is, how strong he is, how fit he is, the running he puts in. It’s not by accident. He looks after his body. You look at Scott Brown, an example in terms of his shift in knowing every day counts when you’re a player to get that lean. To get that strong to be able to cover ground in the area he plays you need to be at a certain level physically.“And now you’re seeing a player playing really at the top of his game. You can see it clearly how Scott’s shape has changed – you can see how lean he is. He will be the best advocate of that, he’ll speak to you more on that. But you can’t play at the level he’s playing at without change.”"
That fitness level and Celtic’s overall squad strength has certainly received a big test from July forward. No team in Scotland has played more matches so far this season, and the hits will just keep coming.
It has many wondering when Celtic may be making some wholesale changes to save star players for bigger matches in the coming weeks.
Rodgers believes that will take care of itself by the play of the squad on the training pitches.
“I have to be mindful of making changes to the team. It’s something the staff and I’ll look at,” said Rodgers. “I have trust in the guys who could come in.
“That’s why they have to be on their guard every day in training, because they can be asked to come in and play. I have no qualms if I have to make changes.”
We’ll see if the overall changes made behind the scenes can continue to allow Celtic to stay unbeaten in domestic competition, but it is clear that Rodgers knows what he wants and is getting it out of his players.