Tony Mowbray has played down expectations that Belarus international Dimitry Verkhovtsov is set to join Celtic. The 23-year-old central defender, who plays for Naftan Novopolotsk in his homeland, jetted into Scotland on Sunday for what were assumed to be signing talks.

However, the Parkhead boss said: "He is not training, we have been testing him to see how fit he is and how strong he is.

"We are assessing him and the tests will last two days.

"But we are not going in to it thinking we are concluding anything or not concluding anything.

"He has played in some pretty high-profile World Cup qualifiers against some pretty decent teams, one of them being England.

"But he is not our player, he is at another club in Belarus.

"There is a lot of water to go under that bridge so I wouldn't be getting too excited about it.

"You (the media) do miss one or two who come in and train for a day or two then go away.

"That will continue and potentially there will be more coming in."