Walsall closing in on Celtic ace Eoghan O'Connell

The 21-year-old centre-back, who featured for the Bhoys in the Champions League earlier this season, was last night close to agreeing a deal which would see him join the Saddlers for the remainder of the campaign.

Kevin Toner's return to Villa earlier this month has left boss Jon Whitney in need of defensive reinforcements and highly-rated O'Connell is seen as the ideal fit.

Negotiations are meanwhile continuing over a deal which would also see Scott Laird return to the Banks's on loan for the rest of the season.

The 28-year-old made a big impression after joining from Scunthorpe for the opening half of the campaign and Whitney has been eager to bring him back, following the expiry of his initial deal last week. There was last night an increasing optimism of reaching an agreement which would see Laird return in time for Saturday's home game with Sheffield United.

Whitney has used the loan market as a means to strengthen a squad which was largely overhauled last summer and the departures of Toner and Burnley winger Josh Ginnelly to their parent clubs earlier this month has given him room to manoeuvre during the January window.

O'Connell, a Republic of Ireland under-21 international, has been tracked by numerous clubs and was last week reported to be close to joining Kilmarnock.

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers is keen for the youngster, who has not featured since a 7-0 defeat by Barcelona back in September, to move out on loan in order to continue his development.

"We have had a couple of enquiries for Eoghan in terms of a loan. I think he's a young player that needs to play games," Rodgers said recently.

"There's a few clubs that are interested in him so we will see. He did very well in pre-season but the team has changed and he is not getting so much game time. So if he can get out on loan that will give him the game time he needs to develop."