CELTIC manager Brendan Rodgers said the club could have an additional striker on board by the time the club's Champions League play-off first leg tie against Astana comes round on Wednesday, on the same night the Parkhead side were heavily linked with 20-year-old South African central defender Rivaldo Coetzee.

The Ajax Cape Town player, who has 22 caps for his country, emerged last night as a credible target for the club, just as Rodgers conceded he may be forced into a U-turn when it came to his previously stated plans of running with two recognised centre forwards, Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths. With Griffiths only risked for half an hour from the bench last night with a calf issue and Dembele out till September with a hamstring injury, Rodgers said he has been forced to reconsider those plans ahead of the meeting with the Kazakhs.

“I will definitely have to look at it a little closer," he said. "My vision is to have two strikers available and fit, pushing each other. But if there’s an unavailability and it’s consistent, then I need to seriously look at that.

“The guys are doing great for us," he added. "And we are not conceding. James [Forrest] is doing great at times, Tom [Rogic] has played up there as well. But the dynamic of the team is obviously better when you have a number nine who can actually play the role.”

Asked if something could happen in time to be a wild card addition to his squad ahead of the play-off round, Rodgers added: “It’s really about the availability of a player. We’ll look to bring in quality if it becomes available. It’s something we have been working towards over the course of the last few weeks."

Rodgers admitted was Griffiths' fitness was an ongoing issue ahead of Wednesday. “We wanted Leigh to get 90 minutes but his calf was playing up again," he said. "So we assessed it and thought it was maybe too big a risk. He felt fine this morning, so he got his half hour at the end of the game."