Brendan Rodgers confirms Craig Gordon will start for Celtic against Manchester City

Brendan Rodgers has revealed that Craig Gordon will start for Celtic during Wednesday night's (28 September) Champions League Group C visit of Manchester City. The Scottish international was replaced as first-choice goalkeeper following the signing of Dorus de Vries from Nottingham Forest in August, but featured for the entire second half of the 6-1 drubbing of Kilmarnock on Saturday after his rival sustained a chest injury before the break.

Such a problem was not deemed to be serious, with De Vries already back in first-team training. He is understandably short of full fitness, however, meaning that Gordon will be handed another chance to impress as the reigning Scottish champions seek to end Premier League leaders City's formidable 100% start to life under Pep Guardiola.

"He (De Vries) trained yesterday and trained today," Rodgers was quoted as saying by Celtic's official website after a pre-match press conference. "He's still a bit sore but he's fine.

"Craig Gordon will start tomorrow. As it is for every game, I pick the team to come in and play. Dorus isn't 100% fit after the weekend. He has trained and worked with the team but there is no need for us to take any risk in a game like this when I've got an outstanding goalkeeper beside him, so Craig will play."

Wednesday's all-British European affair in Glasgow will see Rodgers reunited with Raheem Sterling, who became a first-team regular at Liverpool during the former Watford, Reading and Swansea boss' tenure before joining Manchester City for a then club-record fee of £49m ($63.6m) in July 2015.

Sterling's relationship with Liverpool notably soured during his final season at Anfield amid a contract stand-off. However, Rodgers always denied reports that their relationship suffered as a result and he is looking forward to seeing the rejuvenated England winger again this week.

"He's a great boy to work with and it's been great to see him grow from 17 years old as a player and as a person," he added, as per the BBC. "He's really shown that with focus, he's a top-class player. He was brilliant for me. I'm looking forward to seeing him, but hopefully he doesn't play that well."

Despite a truly humiliating defeat to Gibraltar part-timers Lincoln Red Imps, Celtic successfully qualified for the group stages of this season's Champions League after a three-year absence courtesy of an incredibly nervy 5-4 aggregate play-off victory over Israeli title-holders Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Subsequent trepidation over a tough draw was fully justified by an opening 7-0 defeat to Barcelona – the club's most emphatic ever European loss – in which Lionel Messi netted a hat-trick and Luis Suarez grabbed a brace in addition to goals from Neymar and Andres Iniesta.