Celtic left-back Greg Taylor was 'struggling for most of the game' against Hibernian, according to Ange Postecoglou.

The Scotland international was an early doubt ahead of the Premiership match against the Leith side after being left out of Steve Clarke's squad for the matches against Cyprus and Spain later this month.

Postecoglou assured supporters Taylor would be in contention to play against the Hibees and the 25-year-old was indeed in the starting XI for the game, which Celtic won 3-1 thanks to goals from Jota, Oh Hyeon-gyu and Sead Haksabanovic.

Taylor was withdrawn after an hour at Parkhead, marking the first time he has failed to complete a match that he started since being forced off injured in the Glasgow Derby draw with Rangers on January 2.

READ MORE: Detailed Celtic player ratings as Oh Hyeon-gyu hands Hibs a heartbreaker

Afterwards, Postecoglou conceded the left-back was not 100 per cent and that the international break represents an ideal chance for him - as well as injured duo Aaron Mooy and Tomoki Iwata - to regain full fitness.

"Greg [Taylor] was pretty much struggling for most of the game so it'll be good to have a couple of weeks to recover," Postecoglou told BBC Sportsound. "Aaron [Mooy] and Tomoki [Iwata] we don't expect to be missing once the games resume. With the international guys we'll just have to wait and see."

The Celtic boss had to do without influential midfielder Reo Hatate for the bulk of the game after the Japan international was forced off after just 13 minutes with a suspected hamstring problem.

On Hatate, Postecoglou said: "We'll see with Reo. He obviously felt something so we'll have to see how he recovers from that. We've got a couple of weeks [the international break] so hopefully, that helps him."

Celtic Way:

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