De Vries unlikely to play on Wednesday

Dorus de Vries has spoken about his delight after signing a two-year deal with the Scottish champions Celtic but is unlikely to make his debut on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old became Celtic’s fourth signing of the summer following the acquisition of Moussa Dembele, Kolo Toure and Scott Sinclair earlier in the window.

It is thought Brendan Rodgers wanted a ball-playing ‘keeper, and the former Swansea City and Dunfermline shot-stopper fits the mould.

As quoted by Celtic’s official website, the Dutchman said:

I trained this morning and there was no reaction so that’s going really well. I’m training tomorrow again on the side, not with the group yet, but hopefully I’ll join in later on in the week so things are looking good.

I always dreamt of this, hoped it would happen. Played here before 10 years ago. Such a great club. The manager asked me to show what I’ve done in the past and compete. I have to earn the jersey.

Working hard is the only thing you can do. It’s up to the manager. I played well last year and got the POTY and PPOTY [at Nottingham Forest]. They were reluctant to sell their POTY but I had a good conversation with them.

During his time at Swansea he made 195 appearances, including 51 during Swansea’s promotion season in 2010/11 under Rodgers’ management.

The only question mark surrounding the signing will be in regard to his ankle injury that he sustained in the Championship league opener just over a week ago against Burton Albion.

It is not thought to be serious, however, it’s still uncertain when he will be able to return to action and compete for the number one role.