Brendan Rodgers has called for the return of the winter break in Scotland, saying that the hectic schedule this season may harm both Celtic’s and Rangers’ chances of progressing in European competition.

Celtic face Young Boys in a crucial Champions League tie on January 22nd, with their hopes of making the play-off stage of the competition very much alive. But they will go into that game on the back of playing 10 domestic matches since their last Champions League outing against Dinamo Zagreb on December 10th.

Tomorrow’s trip to Ross County is also the first of three games Celtic will play between now and that tie against the Swiss champions, and Rodgers admits that his team could have done with the respite that the winter shutdown once offered at this time of the year.

“It certainly it doesn't help,” Rodgers said.

“Hopefully going forward, we can find solutions to that.

“The spotlight will be on ourselves and Rangers in European competitions. And you are going to come out the back end of a really, really gruelling schedule.

“We have to cope with it, and maybe in the future the organisers can look at ways in which we can help.

“My bigger picture is that when I used to be up here, we knew that December was going to be a hard schedule, getting through all of that.

(Image: Steve Welsh - PA) “Then you had your New Year's game and only then you'd have a couple of weeks to reset, refresh and then go again for the second part of the season.

“To then actually have even more games in that period, now that we don’t have a break, it is a real challenge. You can't deny that.

“If you think, this game would be three games in six days. We play Saturday and then we're on the travels again on Tuesday night. “We will do everything we can to produce the best performances and results and be focused on that as we possibly can be.

“However, it is a really heavy schedule. As I said, it's there so we have to get on with it, but it’s certainly not ideal.”

Furthermore, Rodgers feels that supporters are also being treated unfairly, both in terms of the pressure being placed on their finances to travel to so many matches in such a short period, and in the quality of football they will see due to player fatigue.

When asked if he would like to see the winter break reinstated, he said: “If it was ever possible.

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“I think it's for the greater good of the game for our supporters.

“You think of the January schedule and the finances for supporters. You come off the back of a Christmas period and it's a sort of run of games.

“I know the Celtic supporters and supporters in general will do everything they can to get to football games. But it might be also nice for them to have a wee bit of relief from that pressure of finding money for travel and food and everything to get to football games.

“But for players, I definitely do. I think the schedule is only getting greater and heavier and that will have an impact on players' injuries because they're not robots.

“They're absolutely not. Players are as fit as players have ever been in the history of the game.

“They are not robots and they need that recovery time.

“There's bound to be breakdowns along the way. There will be. I think that's why coaches and managers speak on that.

“We see the players every day. We see physically what they've put in. We see the resilience that they have.

“But they are not machines. We want to produce the best football that we can for supporters so they get the value for money. You never want it to be a stop.

“You never want the tempo to drop. All these types of things. But that will invariably happen once, as I said, you've just churned out all these games with very little recovery time.

(Image: PA)

"I've seen the schedule for the end of this season. You've got a Champions League final and two weeks later there's a Club World Championship starting.

“How are you supposed to recover? Are you supposed to get yourself ready again? It's a real challenge for the modern player and especially the top player.

“But I think in general, that sort of recovery is good for everyone. If there's ever a way for it, then of course I'd be very supportive of that.

“It's the product. You've got to produce the best product that you can and that can be a challenge when you have so many fixtures.”