BRENDAN Rodgers has revealed he is monitoring Patrick Roberts’s situation at Manchester City and admitted the winger could return to Celtic for a third spell.

Roberts has hardly featured for the English champions on their pre-season tour of the United States and this week admitted he hadn’t spoken to manager Pep Guardiola about his future.

The 21-year-old spent much of the 2017/18 campaign sidelined with a thigh injury, but he enjoyed his two and a half years in Scotland and remains open-minded about coming back.

“I think Patrick is one of those players you look at and then you see what happens over the next period of time,” said Rodgers.

“He has obviously been away with Man City and he is there. But our eyes are open to lots of options.

“He was unfortunate last season because early on he sustained a really bad injury and it was then obviously difficult for him.

“But he is a fantastic player and we are always going to be interested in top class players."

Roberts cost City £12 million when they signed him from Fulham three years ago, but he has only made three first team appearances for the Etihad Stadium club since then.

Rodgers, who broke the Celtic transfer record when he brought in Odsonne Edouard from Paris Saint-Germain for £9 million last month, stressed he hadn’t considered the player joining permanently.

But the former Swansea City and Liverpool manager believes the close of the Premier League transfer window on Thursday could help him in his efforts to strengthen his Celtic squad.

"That is maybe where the advantage will come with the window down south shutting down early," he said.

“By that stage players will know where they are at their own clubs. So it is just a case of looking and waiting to see what happens.”

Meanwhile, Rodgers has said that Ryan Christie, who came on for Edouard in the second half of the Champions League second qualifying round second leg against Rosenborg in Trondheim on Wednesday night, will decide whether he stays at Celtic this season or goes out on loan again.

“We have one or two players like Ryan that will be very important players for our squad,” he said. “It is just really how they see themselves and whether they want to be a part of the squad.

“We don’t have a player who will play every single game so there is going to be games there for these players.

“The feeling is for the player. Ryan has got a year left on his contract. He is a good boy, he did exactly what we wanted in terms of him going on loan and getting 18 months’ really good experience. He came back stronger, determined, but it is what he wants as a footballer.

“For some of the boys on loan, out for 18 months to two years, they have been away for what has been a really strong period in the history of Celtic. Those players, a lot of them are still here.

But that doesn’t mean the others can’t come in and make a contribution. But if they want to go away and play then that is a different conversation.

“The reason for putting him on against Rosenborg was we felt that his attitude and energy would give us a lift. Odsonne is in pre-season so he is playing a lot of the time.

“So when his energy started to drop we knew Ryan would come on and work his socks off and he did that really well at a time when we had to be strong and put pressure on their defenders.”