BRENDAN Rodgers has said Celtic may look to the transfer market with defender Dedryck Boyata facing up to three months out with a knee injury.

The Belgium international — who established himself as a regular starter in the second half of last season — will miss Celtic’s Champions League qualifying campaign after suffering medial ligament damage during a friendly draw with Slavia Prague on Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of today’s friendly against Shamrock Rovers in Dublin, Rodgers said: “I’ll sit down and have a look with the staff to see where we are at. We have Jozo [Simunovic], who has been on a real good run of fitness but who is one we have always been managing.

“Erik has normally been fit, which has been fine. Young Kris Ajer has come back from a loan period and I like to develop from within. But he has hardly trained in pre-season because he has been injured as well.

“We want to ensure we have the cover there. It is a case of slowing the thinking, having a look at it and seeing if we need to bring one in.

“I’m open-minded. My job is to do the best for Celtic, which is to win games. I need to try to find a way to do that. These are big pressure games that come in at this stage of the season.”