Brendan Rodgers says that Celtic must improve their squad by the end of the transfer window tomorrow night, as he conceded that a loan move to reinforce the striker position at the club was now the most likely outcome.

The Celtic manager said after the win over Motherwell that he wouldn’t be ‘falling out with himself’ over the need to bring in the players he feels he needs to maintain the strength of his squad for the second half of the season, but stressed that the club are well aware of his feelings on the matter.

Celtic have been linked with a big-money move for Brondby striker Mathias Kvistgaarden, but when asked if any striker coming in before tomorrow’s deadline would likely be a loan instead, Rodgers said: “I would think so. I would think so.

“I think that to get the one that we would want for that longer term, if it's not there, then I don't want to just bring in anyone just for the sake of it. I'll always look from within.

“There's no point in bringing in someone if they're not the right fit. So it might be more down that route, but we'll wait and see what tomorrow evening brings.

“It's competition. We've got to this point in the season. Why? Because the squad has been really competitive.

“We can bring players in that can do well. Like we can take Nicholas Kuhn off, put Jota into the game, which keeps the level of the game up.

“We play so many games. And how we want to play takes a lot of work, a lot of intense work. My feeling was always once Kyogo was gone, was to have someone else to come in.

“So that's the plan. And hopefully that can be the case, and we execute that by tomorrow night.

“I don't know exactly know where it's at at this moment, but I'd be hopeful that we can do that.

“The club knows my feelings, they know why I came back. I'm here to enjoy my time at Celtic, not to fall out with myself and do all the things that sometimes I maybe didn't do the first time.

“But the demand is still there to improve the squad. We have to. We have to make sure that there's constant improvement. That's been clear.

“I don't need to fall out with anyone over it. Everyone knows what it is we want to do at the club and that's us all.

“I'm hopeful that we can do that.”

Rodgers explained the reason why young striker Daniel Cummings was absent from the squad for the win at Fir Park, with speculation mounting that he is close to a move to West Ham.

The Celtic manager though did say that it was now down to the player and his agents to either stay, show patience and fight his way into the team, or move on at this early stage of his career.

“He was with the second team yesterday and he was ill in the warm-up, so he didn't play,” he said.

“I believe there's interest from another club for him, but that's been the case with a lot of our young players.

“You get to a certain age where they have their contract running out, and then they have a decision to make.

“Do they stay and follow the example of a Callum McGregor, for example, trust the club, be patient and knowing that you might not be right ready at 17, 18, but you have to be a special talent to be.

“Can you just be patient and wait a little bit longer? Or do you do what a lot of players have done and take the opportunity at 18 to look elsewhere?

“So, I think that's the situation that young Daniel is with his agents. We will just wait and see what happens.”