Scott McKenna: Celtic end interest in Aberdeen defender after rejected £3.5m bid
- Published
Scott McKenna broke into the Aberdeen team last September
Celtic have ended their interest in signing Aberdeen defender Scott McKenna, says manager Brendan Rodgers.
Aberdeen rejected a bid in the region of £3.5m from Celtic for the Scotland centre-half, 21.
Rodgers' side are searching for a central defender as the uncertainty continues around Dedryck Boyata.
"He is a young player that I like, but it was made clear Scott won't be for sale in this window so that would end that," said Rodgers.
Asked if Celtic would make an increased offer for McKenna, Rodgers replied: "I don't think so, no."
Boyata, 27, has not travelled with Celtic for Thursday's match with Suduva and was the subject of a failed bid by Fulham earlier in August.
The Belgium international missed the Champions League third qualifying round defeat by AEK Athens, claiming he was "not 100% operational".
Rodgers said there were "still issues around Dedryck physically" and also revealed Boyata had held clear the air talks with the manager and club captain Scott Brown.
"It's very simple and it's closed now," explained Rodgers. "We tried to keep a wee bit of distance from it, from last week where he was training separate to the group.
"Dedryck had a meeting with the captain and myself. We all spoke about where we were at but we wanted to move on from it.
"We feel that if he was ready to do that and commit to our work then of course we only want good players but, more importantly, we only want good attitudes in the group and that was something that was very clear.
"Dedryck from that has trained the last few days with the squad but deems himself not quite ready physically to participate in the games."