Brendan Rodgers hopeful of signing before transfer deadline

Brendan Rodgers is hopeful he will be able to add to his Celtic squad before next week's transfer deadline.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers watched his side defeat Albion Rovers on Sunday. Picture: SNS

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Celtic have been linked with 19-year-old Nigerian winger Henry Onyekuru, with reports in Africa quoting the player as declaring that the Scottish champions have made an official bid to his club, Belgian side KAS Eupen.

The Parkhead side have already recruited in the January window with Kouassie Eboue joining from Krasnodar for a free of around £3 million.

Rodgers will be patient in his recruiting, a luxury enabled by Celtic’s terrific form in domestic football this season

He said: “I didn’t want to bring in too many but we have an option that we could get over the line. We will wait and see on that one.

“It’s about slowly building the squad. The squad has been outstanding in their work over the first six months so we want to just keep adding to it to help the players that are already here.

“There will maybe be one or two that will go out on a loan basis as well, so there will probably be both ways. I suspect there will be some change in the squad before the window.”

Leigh Griffiths is back in training after missing Sunday’s William Hill Scottish Cup win over Albion Rovers with a tight calf, while Mikael Lustig will be monitored after going off at half-time.

“He had a stiff back and as a precaution we took him off,” Rodgers said. “Playing on the astroturf, it just provokes a wee bit more out of some players than others. So we will see how he is, he is still a bit stiff.”

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