Neil Lennon has said that Hibs won't ask for the Edinburgh derby to be postponed after three players were called up by Australia, but said he was unhappy they wouldn't be allowed to face Hearts.

Mark Milligan, Martin Boyle and Jamie Maclaren have all been selected for the Asian Cup and are expected to fly out before the capital derby, though they can face Rangers on Boxing Day.

"We don't want to call the game off, we want to play it," Lennon said. "I think that's a positive from our point of view.

"It's a big game, it's the time of year, and it could provide a fixture backlog later on.

"We are playing well, if we get momentum after Ibrox then hopefully that will work in our favour, but I don't see any need to call the game off."

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has expressed his dismay at Australia's inflexibility over Tom Rogic, who is in the same situation, and Lennon revealed that he feels that Football Federation Australia have gone back on an earlier promise.

He claims that Australia told him that "one or two" of the players may be available for the derby.

"I don't know if it's going to be possible but we will keep an eye on the situation," he said. "It's not ideal and it's not what we were told was going to happen. So we are very disappointed with that. But we will get on with it.

"We have two very important games before that. If the lads leave we will use what is left of the squad. To be fair we beat Celtic without the three of them, so we can manage."