The Scotsman

Mckenna is bound for top in England - Mcinnes

- By ANGUS WRIGHT

Aberdeen manager Derek Mcinnes believes Scott Mckenna is destined to play in England’s top flight after Celtic failed to prise him from Pittodrie.

Aberdeen rejected a reported £3.5 million offer for the Scotland internatio­nal this week and Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has since accepted he will not be sold during this transfer window.

Mcinnes is confident the 21-year-old centre-back is in no rush to move, having signed a contract until 2023 in March.

Mcinnes said. “I can understand clubs admiring some of our players and Scott in particular. But Scott is a very important player for us and I do believe Scott will move in time to the English Premier League. “There had been rumours that Celtic were going to come, and we were maybe not too surprised they came after the English window closed. But he’s our player thankfully and we move on.”

Mckenna is out of action ahead of Aberdeen’s trip to face Hibernian tomorrow after suffering a hamstring injury in the Ladbrokes Premiershi­p opener against Rangers.

The injury also looks likely to keep him out of Scotland’s double header against Belgium and Albania and Mcinnes declared his player was much more concerned with his fitness than transfer business.

“He’s absolutely fine, just concentrat­ing on trying to get fit and back into action,” the Dons boss said. “He is very relaxed about it, whether he takes it as a backhanded compliment or whatever.

“But he trusts me and he trusts us to shape his career and help him all we can, as we have done up to now.

“We are in no rush to sell and if we do sell it will be on our terms. We have not even had a full season of him in the first team. He has got more caps to earn, he has more games to play with us, hopefully he has plenty to achieve with us.

“We know Scott will at some point be moving on to bigger and better things, it’s just not at this moment.”

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