James McFadden has played down concerns that Celtic’s long midweek trip to Kazakhstan will have a major impact on their preparations for the first Glasgow Derby of the season.

Brendan Rodgers’ side face a gruelling journey to Almaty for the second leg of their Champions League play-off against Kairat, kicking off at 9:45pm local time, which will see it finish closer to midnight. The tie comes just four days before the Hoops head to Ibrox on Sunday, 31 August.

However, McFadden insists the schedule still gives Celtic plenty of time to recover and prepare for the showdown with Rangers.

“No, because they’ll stay here and travel back the next day and still have three days to prepare for the game,” McFadden told Open Goal. “There’s teams that go and, we’ve done it with Scotland, didn’t work. We get pumped.

“It doesn’t sound great, but it’s Tuesday. I think they’ll have plenty of time. It’s not as if they’re going to be standing to check their bags in three hours before they fly. And then flying in direct, they’ll go straight there. I think they’ll be fine. Ideally, they would have wanted Bratislava.

“We just stayed on our time. It was fine. But you still need to do the travel, you need to obviously play the game. Depending on how it goes, it’s not ideal — but it’s not a disaster.”

McFadden’s spot on. Celtic will have more than enough time to reset, recover, and get their focus on Rangers.

The squad’s experience in managing time-zone change, with many internationals making up the group, is a huge advantage, and the travel schedule isn’t nearly as punishing as some fans might fear. It’ll be a direct chartered flight for the players.

James Forrest has told CeltsAreHere that Celtic normally adapt to the time zones, unlike the Scotland squad.

The winger has travelled to Kazakhstan with club and country before, and will know exactly what pressure he will be under to adapt and adapt fast.

By the time derby day comes around, there’ll be no excuses.