What Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is constantly hearing about Rangers as he reminds rivals that “it’s still in our hands”

Celtic let Rangers off the hook this weekend, but Rodgers was quick to remind the doubters that his team remains in control of their destiny.

Brendan Rodgers is adamant that Celtic still have the fight and quality to reclaim their crown.

However, the Parkhead side may have to continue their challenge without skipper Callum McGregor until after the next international break. Rodgers left Tynecastle fuming about the officiating during his team’s 2-0 loss to Hearts. It was a pivotal moment in the title race because, despite being given the opportunity to go top of the table by Rangers’ home loss to Motherwell the day before, the champions failed to capitalise.

But Rodgers remained defiant in the face of the bitter Gorgie setback, looking ahead to the upcoming challenges for his team.Celtic are still two points behind the leaders with nine games remaining, including a Scottish Cup quarterfinal against Livingston on Sunday. Rodgers understands that it is crunch time, but he is confident that his team has the stomach and style to compete in both competitions.

Despite the painful defeat in Gorgie, he believes he saw enough in the scrapping qualities to provide hope for the coming weeks. He stated: “I think the players fought and gave everything. Clearly Callum is a really influential player for us, but the guys gave their all.

“The fight is there. The quality is there. We will have other opportunities to show that. They gave everything and fought right to the very end. We showed the spirit we had to show.

“It was a game that can run away from you because of the atmosphere and everything else, and at the end of a really long week. A tough week of games with Motherwell last Sunday and the midweek game. You don’t want to go down to 10 men after 15 minutes or so. The players gave everything.”

Rodgers believes there will be many more twists and turns before the end of the season. Both Old Firm sides lost on the same weekend for the first time in six years, prompting the Celtic manager to say, “Absolutely.”

“You would never have said yesterday before Rangers lost to Motherwell at home that they would lose. Everything I hear is that they are going to win every single game through to the end of the season.

“But we know it’s about us. It’s still very much in our hands.

“We’ve got 12 games to go. Nine league games and we want to be in the cup final on the 25th of May. We will fight for every competition we will be in.

“We had the chance to go top. It was unfortunate the way the game panned out for us. We now have to recover and go away and get to the semi-finals next weekend.”

McGregor’s absence had a significant impact on Celtic at Tynecastle, as the skipper was unable to help them out of a difficult situation. The captain had complained of soreness in his achilles and calf after being replaced at halftime in the previous game against Dundee.

McGregor will now be sent for specialist examinations later this week, as medical staff attempt to determine the severity of the problem. Rodgers confirmed that his on-field leader will be examined, and while he is confident that it will not keep him out for an extended period of time, he is concerned.

He said, “He will have another scan on Wednesday. I don’t think it will be long-term but it may last through to the international break.”

National coach Steve Clarke was present at Tynecastle, and there is a good chance he will not have the Celtic star available for the upcoming friendlies against Holland and Northern Ireland. When asked if McGregor would miss the Scotland double-header, the Celtic manager replied,  “I don’t know. He may well do.

“He has a further scan on Wednesday and then we will get to see where he’s at. If he’s not going to be involved for us, he obviously won’t be involved for Scotland.”

Rodgers, for his part, admitted that his team was to blame for further misery from the 12 yard line. Although he was enraged by the penalty awarded to Tomoki Iwata following Hyunjun Yang’s red card, his team had missed their own golden opportunity from the spot earlier in the game.

Referee Don Robertson awarded Yang after Alex Cochrane fouled him inside the box. Adam Idah took on the responsibility, but once again, a Celtic player failed to demonstrate discipline.

For the fifth time this season, Rodgers’ team failed to convert from the spot. Reo Hatate missed one into the same goal against Hearts earlier this season, but it didn’t matter because his team won 4-1.

This time, however, it proved costly, as subsequent events left the champions on the floor. Idah had scored twice in his previous visit to Edinburgh, including in stoppage time against Hibs last month.

But it was a different story here, and Rodgers responded, “Yeah. We have to look at ourselves for that. In fairness to Adam he’s done the right thing, he just needed to lift it a bit more. He decided to go down the middle and didn’t get it as high as he wanted. They made the save and in that little spell we lose a man, so we take responsibility for that.”

In other news, Joe Hart confronts Hearts fans with fury. Celtic keeper held back by teammate during penalty scenes.