European Toure of duty on hold for star
edge of Asia. When asked about the Toure deal, he said: “It should be complete by tomorrow.
“I would think Wednesday’s game would be too soon for him, I’d probably be looking more towards the weekend, give him some game time against Barcelona to assess where he’s at before the following week.
“I brought him into Liverpool to add that bit of experience and to help the centre-halves.
“You saw his impact there, particularly last season. He was a very important player for Jurgen Klopp towards the end of the season and played in the Europa League Final.
“In the big games he was outstanding for me and he looks after himself. He’s a wonderful professional.
“With a lot of young players in our squad, he can really help them and be of great experience to someone like Scott Brown, who is a wonderful leader.
“He needs support and help around him as well, so it will be nice for Scott to have someone behind him who has that real big game experience. Kolo can do very well for us.”
Toure can’t wait to pull on a Hoops jersey and insists he can make an impact straight away.
When asked if he was ready for the game in Kazakhstan, the stopper said: “‘ Definitely. I’m here to try to be ready to help the team as much as I can.
‘The Champions League is a great competition to play in and I’m always looking forward to it.
“The qualifying games coming up are going to be really important and we will give everything we’ve got to qualify.
“I’m ready for a new challenge and looking forward to it
“The most important thing is to work hard, give everything in training and try to help the team get better. That’s all I can do.”
But Rodgers won’t be taking Toure with the rest of the squad when they travel to Astana for the first leg of their qualifier.
He said: “He’ll need to stay and work. All being well, he’ll get a good week’s training.”
However, the Parkhead boss still hasn’t ruled out bringing in another player who could feature on Wednesday.
Rodgers said: “That ’ s something that we need to wait and see. We’ve got some work going on behind the scenes so hopefully we can get some business done.
“It’s going to be tight – we leave Monday afternoon.”
Celtic continue to be linked with Aston Villa forward Scott Sinclair, a player Rodgers worked with at Swansea.
But the Hoops boss said: “He’s an Aston Villa player, Scott, so there’s no update.”
Celtic warmed up for their Euro crunch by drawing 1-1 with English champions Leicester at Parkhead yesterday.
Young Irish defender Eoghan O’Connell grabbed the Hoops’ leveller and Rodgers was impressed by his display.
He said: “I have been impressed by his understanding of the game. He wants to defend first and foremost but you can see his comfort on the ball and his finish was great.”