Kieran Tierney: What player are Celtic getting six years after his exit?

However, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over a career packed with injury worries that have mounted up since his Parkhead exit.

Just four of Tierney’s 20 club appearances last season were starts, meaning he played just 447 minutes of football after returning from a serious hamstring injury suffered at Euro 2024 last summer.

In the 2023-24 campaign, he played 1,483 minutes for Sociedad, the equivalent of about 16 full 90-minute matches. The season before was almost exactly the same.

According to Transfermarkt, external, he has endured 11 spells of absence since leaving Celtic, amounting to 94 games missed for club and country.

That is the equivalent of two-and-a-half seasons of Scottish Premiership football.

Tierney also had to leave the Scotland camp injured on Sunday after earning his 50th cap in the 3-1 home defeat to Iceland. The extent of that issue is unclear.

It is fair to assume he will be returning to become one of Celtic’s top earners. That is, of course, a risk given his injury record, but a fit-and-firing Tierney undoubtedly improves Rodgers’ side at Champions League level.

In addition, what does that mean for Greg Taylor? The 27-year-old, who has won as many Premiership titles as Tierney and has 14 Scotland caps of his own, is set to become a free agent this summer.

Rodgers is keen to have both players in his squad, but Taylor has reservations over becoming a rotation player after making himself first-choice left-back.

If the former Kilmarnock defender stays at Celtic, he could ease the load on Tierney if his minutes need to be restricted, giving Rodgers two excellent options.