£3M EURO STAR

Sinclair joins Celts in time for Hapoel tie

CELTIC last night moved to seal their long-running pursuit of Scott Sinclair by striking a £3million-plus deal with Aston Villa.

And manager Brendan Rodgers now hopes to make a further addition ahead of Monday’s signing deadline for the Champions League play-off against Israeli outfit Hapoel Be’er-Sheva.

Sinclair will complete a medical and personal terms today to become Rodgers’ third acquisition after Moussa Dembele and Kolo Toure.

The Parkhead club had seen several bids for the 27-year-old winger rejected, but Villa boss Roberto Matteo confirmed yesterday that a fresh offer — which includes a number of add-on clauses — was being considered. That proved acceptable to the English Championship outfit, who this week spent £12m on Scottish forward Ross McCormack.

Sinclair’s arrival will augment Celtic’s attacking options after Patrick Roberts was ruled out for up to three weeks with a

hamstring injury sustained against Astana. Rodgers (below) remained coy on the deal in front of the media yesterday afternoon, but spoke of his admiration for a player he previously worked with at Swansea City. ‘Scott is obviously a player I know very well,’ he said. ‘We will see over the course of the weekend. As a club, we would hope to close something out at the weekend.’ Charlie Mulgrew, whose contract expired at the end of last season, is back training with Celtic, although Rodgers said that was primarily with a view to the Scotland international keeping himself fit. Rodgers has been linked with a loan move for Manchester United’s Paddy McNair in his hunt for reinforcements. And he is hopeful Sinclair will not be the only deal done by early next week. ‘Ideally, it would be two players,’ he said. ‘I would hope one of them would be over the line this weekend. If the other one wasn’t by Monday, then hopefully not long after that.’ While tomorrow’s Premiership opener against Hearts will come too soon for Sinclair, Rodgers will hope to have him fully integrated in the squad ahead of the home leg

against Be’er Sheva on Wednesday, August 17. Celtic travel to Israel for the return six days later. ‘It’s a tough game but I was expecting tough games right the way through,’ said Rodgers. ‘What can maybe help us a little bit is they are not in their season. Astana were 22 games in, so when you add that to their own pre-season, they were at a real good level of fitness. ‘We need to find out about the conditions and it will be another long flight. There are logistical elements. We’ll have an analysis of that before making decisions. ‘The preference, as always, would be to have your second leg at home. But it means we can put a real good marker down in the first game. ‘Being at home with the fanatical support, we can really have a good go in that match and tee it up for the second game.’ That game in Israel would be the earliest possible date for Roberts to return after sustaining his injury on Wednesday. ‘It is a slight hamstring strain, which is unfortunate as he has been improving every day,’ added Rodgers. Celtic hope Erik Sviatchenko and Nir Bitton will be fit for the first leg. Israeli midfielder Bitton — who is ‘highly unlikely’ to have recovered from an ankle knock in time for Tynecastle, according to Rodgers — has warned of the threat posed by his compatriots, Be’er Sheva, who reached the play-off round after a 1-0 aggregate win over Olympiakos. ‘They have good players, good attackers and are a good defensive team as they don’t concede a lot,’ Bitton told the Celtic website. ‘If you beat Olympiakos, you must be a good side.’