Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers insists Neil Lennon would "walk into another job" if and when he leaves Hibernian.
The Hibs head coach missed the 3-1 Ladbrokes Premiership win at St Mirren on Sunday, reportedly suspended on Friday night along with assistant Gary Parker following a meeting with chief executive Leeann Dempster.
Eddie May, head of the academy set-up at the Easter Road club, and his assistant Grant Murray were in charge in Paisley and Hibs have still to clear up Lennon's situation.
When asked about his fellow Northern Irishman, ahead of Celtic's Ladbrokes Premiership clash with St Johnstone on Wednesday night, Rodgers said: "You are always disappointed and of course there is no resolution yet to the situation. Of course you are always sad.
"I know Neil pretty well and I know how good a manager he is and what he puts into his life as a football manager, what a very good tactician he is and the thing with Neil is he is not interested in being second best.
"He has been in the game all his life as a player and as a manager and coach to be the best he can be.
"He will only every want to be the best. He galvanised Hibs when he went in there and showed consistently what a fantastic job he has done there.
"So if they end up parting the way then of course it will be very disappointing and it would be a sad end to what has been a really successful time there, but of course there is a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that we are not privy to.
"But I have a lot of respect for him, I did as a player and have done as a manager.
"He is a good man who loves the game in general, a real thoughtful guy, very intelligent guy and I am sure if it did come to an end at Hibs that he would walk into another job I'm sure."
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Ronnie Esplin, Press Association Sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '85b481ab-001d-4ba8-99ac-1a7d81b62d2a');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Brendan Rodgers backs Neil Lennon to succeed elsewhere if sacked by Hibernian'});
