Kolo Toure could be thrown in at the deep end this week against Astana – after he didn’t travel to Dublin last night.

The Parkhead side play Barcelona in the International Champions Cup in the Aviva stadium tonight. Toure had been expected to feature in order to get some match practice under his belt, but instead has remained at Lennoxtown to work on his fitness programme.

The decision was made to leave Toure in Glasgow to work on a specific schedule, but with Erik Sviatchenko toiling for the return leg, Dedryck Boyata out and Jozo Simunovic still a bit away from full fitness, there remains a defensive headache for Brendan Rodgers ahead of the second leg. Mikael Lustig has also remained in Glasgow, although that is more precautionary rather than anything problematic.

“It’s pretty much the same as we had in midweek in Astana,” said John Kennedy, the club’s assistant manager. “Erik hasn’t travelled over, we will see how he is over the next couple of days. It’s better for him to stay at home and get some treatment with a view to Wednesday’s match.

“Kolo is still working, fitness-wise, he will stay back and do some extra work. It’s probably a bit early for him to play today so we think if he stays at home he can get a few extra sessions fitness wise and then we’ll have a look at that and assess that on Monday.”

Asked if the former Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool defender had a chance to play against Astana in a tie that is slightly tilted in Celtic’s favour given their away goal in Kazakhstan, Kennedy said: “It depends how he comes through the next few days’ training. If we find his fitness levels are good enough he’s an option but we have to go with we’ve got and it’s pretty much similar to what we had in midweek.”

Kennedy was also coy on further arrivals coming to the club prior to Wednesday’s second leg tie against the Kazakhstan side. The Parkhead side have had four bids turned down for Aston Villa’s Scott Sinclair, and have also been linked with Chelsea youngster Patrick Bamberg.

“There are a number of targets we are looking at and we have to make sure the rights ones come in,” he said. “He’s [Sinclair] one that has been mentioned but he is still an Aston Villa player. We want to bring quality players in but with the numbers we have we have to bring in players who will be in the team or who can challenge. That is the calibre of player we are looking at.”

“Kolo was on the radar but it happened pretty quickly. If it happens, great. If not we have a strong enough squad that we showed in midweek we can go and perform. We are coming back to Celtic Park in a good position.”

Meanwhile, Kennedy has dismissed a bid by Astana to have Griffiths banned for the second leg of the tie. They had claimed the striker punched Igor Shitov off the ball and had called for a six game ban – only for UEFA to throw it out.

“I think it’s a little bit blown out of proportion,” said Kennedy. “There was a coming together on the pitch, Uefa have dealt with it, the referee deemed it a yellow card and we move on from it there’s nothing else to say.”