Last updated on .From the section Celtic

Odsonne Edouard was replaced eight minutes after coming on

Celtic face injury concerns over four more players after a bruising Scottish Premiership win over St Johnstone.

Mikael Lustig was forced off at half-time, Odsonne Edouard was replaced after coming on as a substitute and Ryan Christie picked up a rib knock.

Meanwhile, Celtic ended the 2-0 win with nine men after James Forrest was injured and Kristoffer Ajer sent off.

"It shows the importance of adding to the squad," Rodgers told BBC Scotland. "Days like today, we get the benefit."

Dedryck Boyata, Kieran Tierney, Tom Rogic and Olivier Ntcham are among the players who were already sidelined ahead of a victory that stretches Celtic's lead to six points over Rangers.

Ajer's red card means the centre-half will be added to absences as Celtic host Hibernian in the league on Wednesday before facing St Johnstone for a third time in four games in the Scottish Cup next Sunday.

'I thought Toljan did well'

Asked about the severity of the injury suffered by striker Edouard, Rodgers said: "He got the studs on the top of his foot, so that looks sore.

"Hopefully, he'll come round. He'll probably have a little bit of swelling, but apart from that, hopefully he'll be okay.

"Ryan Christie has really sore ribs, he could hardly breath, but he kept fighting and kept running. And James Forrest just felt his hamstring really tight, so we'll just have to assess it.

"Mika felt his Achilles in the first half and it got worse as it went on."

Lustig's injury meant new signing Jeremy Toljan was introduced for his debut and the on-loan Borussia Dortmund right-back earned Rodgers' praise.

"It's nice for him to come into that type of game, get a feeling for it early and I thought he did well when he came on," he said.

Rodgers had no complaints about Ajer's red card, for a last-man foul on Callum Hendry, and was otherwise pleased with his side's performance.

"We knew that we had to be patient," he said. "Eventually, once we tire them out and the spaces open up a bit more in the last 25 minutes then we took our chances to score.

"It was an eventful game - players getting injured and playing the last 12 minutes or so with 10 men. And then, there's the red card, but with all of that in the mix, it was a brilliant result against a good side."