Celtic latest: Scott Allan set for Rotherham loan move, Kolo Toure set for Astana debut

SCOTT ALLAN is set to move to English Championship side Rotherham on loan.

According to the Daily Record, the Celtic midfielder has been deemed surplus to requirements by Brendan Rodgers and will head south on a season-long deal.

It means that he will be reunited with Alan Stubbs, under whom he flourished in the Championship with Hibs before making the move to Celtic Park last summer.

First team opportunities were limited for Allan under Ronny Deila, with the former Dundee United playmaker making just 12 league appearances.

Rotherham boss Stubbs has already recruited from Scotland, with Will Vaulks making the move to the Millers from Falkirk earlier this month.

The Championship side have also signed ex-Celtic defender Kelvin Wilson and former Rangers star Kirk Broadfoot is also at the club, having joined from Blackpool in 2014.

Meanwhile, Kolo Toure is set to make his Celtic debut against FC Astana in the Champions League on Wednesday night with Rodgers insisting a start for the 35-year-old would not be a gamble.

The former Arsenal and Manchester City defender teamed up with his former Liverpool boss last week but sat out the first leg of the third qualifying round in Kazakhstan, which ended 1-1, and Saturday’s 3-1 International Champions Cup defeat to Barcelona in Dublin as he worked on his fitness.

Rodgers is short on defenders, with Erik Sviatchenko still out with a groin strain and Dedryck Boyata and Jozo Simunovic both working their way back following respective hamstring and knee injuries.

That leaves Rodgers, who gave a European debut to 20-year-old Eoghan O’Connell alongside the much-criticised Efe Ambrose in the Astana Arena, still limited in central defensive options for the crunch game at Parkhead.

“Kolo will be in the squad,” said the Hoops boss, who revealed Nir Bitton has had a scan on the ankle injury he picked up at the Aviva Stadium which will almost certainly rule him out while fellow midfielder Stefan Johansen is back in the squad after missing the last two matches after his wife had a baby.

“He has trained well since he has come in.

“We left him behind at the weekend to continue with that and I am confident that he can play a part in the game tomorrow.

“If I feel he can start in the game and he is ready, I will have no problem playing him.

“I wouldn’t think it would be gamble, we are just assessing fitness at the moment.

“He is super-experienced. Kolo has had a great impact already in the short period of time he has had here but you also have to try to apply a little bit of common sense to it,

“He has only been in the building a short period of time (and) it is a huge game for us. But I have no doubt that his experience somewhere in the game can be required, if I felt that he wasn’t ready to start.”

On Bitton’s injury, Rodgers said: “He will struggle to make the game. He had quite a bad knock on his medial ligament so I think he will struggle for fitness for tomorrow.”

Celtic have failed to qualify for the Champions League for the last two seasons and rectifying that situation was Rodgers’ main remit on taking over from RonnyDeila in May.

The Northern Irishman insists keeping a clear head amid the “hysteria” which can surround Champions League qualifiers is key to achieving that goal.

“To qualify into the Champions League is a goal that we set at the start of the season but you have to stay calm,” said the former Watford, Reading and Swansea manager.

“We have to stay calm. There will be a lot of hysteria around but as manager and coaches and players you have to have that calmness to allow you to fulfil the abilities that you have.

“We have put in a lot of work and what gives us the confidence is that we are working relentlessly with the team, analysing the opponents.

“We are on the training field as long as we possibly can, we are speaking to players, we are reviewing games, training situations and that hard work gives us confidence that the players can be prepared as best they possibly could.

“So that is how we are approaching it, we understand the magnitude of it.”

After a “resilient” performance in Astana last week where the Hoops fought back from a goal down to level through striker Leigh Griffiths, the Celtic manager is looking for his side to finish the job off in front of what promises to be a big crowd.

“We are really looking forward to playing at home,” he said.

“I have sensed in the few games that we have had there that the crowd have been brilliant for us and the players have responded to that and likewise, hopefully tomorrow night we show another side to our game.

“We showed a real doggedness last week to keep going and maybe by the end of the game we were unfortunate not to have won it.

“But tomorrow night we aim to show that it is our pitch, we have to own the pitch and we need to get the result and that will be the idea for this home game and all of our home games this season.