Brendan Rodgers hints he may have under-used ‘certified winner’ James Forrest

Rodgers tipped Forrest to play a key role in Celtic's double bid following the winger's influential performance off the bench at Hampden last weekend.

The 32-year-old scored his team's second goal and played a crucial pass ahead of their third during the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup semi-final win over Aberdeen.

And Rodgers hinted he would utilise Forrest more often as he looks to add to his 22 major trophy winners' medals.

“He's a certified winner, he knows what it takes, and having someone of his ability and stature around the team is very important,” the Celtic boss said ahead of Sunday's Scottish Premiership clash at Dundee.

“I think you've seen it in a number of the cameos he's produced recently.

“He didn't get so much game time at parts of the season he maybe felt he deserved. We were giving other players a chance who were brought in, but longer it goes on you see his qualities and what he brings to the team.

“His mindset and the calmness he brings, along with his quality, will be really important for us.

“He's a remarkable professional. There are times this season where he might have felt like he should have played more, and maybe I should have played him more, I don't know.

“What I do know is I was never going to rule him out because I know what he gave me (during) my first time here and this time he's been absolutely brilliant.

“He'll be an instrumental figure for us, whether that's off the pitch or on the pitch for us over these closing weeks.”

Rodgers has described Forrest as the most talented winger at the club on several occasions this season, but the long-serving player has been restricted to just three starts and 20 substitute appearances.

Fellow wide players Liel Abada, Yang Hyun-jun, Mikey Johnston, Nicolas Kuhn, Daizen Maeda and Luis Palma have all started more games, but only the latter two have contributed more goals than Forrest's four.

“I think people were surprised by the fact that I called him the best winger a number of weeks back, but I think you see now what I was meaning - how he looks after the ball, how he takes care of the ball, his game understanding, how he protects it,” he said.

“He very rarely loses it. He can create goals, he can score goals.

“I think the challenge now for any player as they grow older is the intensity at which the modern game is played, especially in a team where intensity is the demand. That's how this team works and how my teams have always worked.

“But that doesn't take away the contribution he can have, whether that's to start a game or to end a game.

“When I came here the first time and when I left to go to the Premier League, I had no qualms about saying to people that he is arguably the best player I have worked with at receiving the ball on the touchline.

“How he takes the ball, his body shape, how he feints when he receives it, whether that's on the right side or the left side, and that's something our younger wingers can learn from.

“If you look at some of the goals we gave away last week, it was from creative players giving the ball away. When you have talented players, they have a love of the ball, they keep the ball and that allows your team to move up the pitch.”