Celtic could face a fight to hang on to Tom Rogic after Arsenal stepped up their interest in the Australian midfielder.

The 23-year-old was in action at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland last night as the Aussies faced up to England in an international friendly as Roy Hodgson’s side warm up for this summer’s European Championships in France.

Arsenal had Rogic watched again – and have been closely on his trail for the last 12 months.

However, they are not alone in their admiration of the midfielder who has one year remaining on his current Parkhead contract.

It is believed that Rogic has also become a target for Fiorentina and Valenica who also had him watched against England last night.

It has been a strong season for Rogic who has established himself in the Celtic midfield after two years of sustained injury problems.

This term he has been stronger physically and having played 38 games and scored 10 goals for the Hoops – the only player to hit double figures other than Leigh Griffiths for Celtic this season – he has been a key component of the Parkhead squad.

It is understood that newly-appointed Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers is eager to retain Rogic for the long term.

Rodgers has yet to have had the chance to speak to the Australian who has been away on international duty since the curtain came down on the SPFL campaign.

Talks regarding a new deal with Rogic began at Celtic at the end of last year but there has been no agreement reached yet between the two parties, although both the player and the club have played down any significance in that.

However, should Celtic fail to reach a new agreement, they may be forced to cash-in on the rising star this transfer window. Four teams from Italy are believed to be monitoring the player, led by Fiorentina.

It has been suggested that Fiorentina see Rogic as an affordable replacement for attacking midfielder Josip Ilicic, who will likely be sold this transfer window.

Meanwhile, Celtic have announced that Glen Driscoll will join Brendan Rodgers as the club’s Head of Performance. It will be a renewal of the working relationship Rodgers had at Swansea and Liverpool where he worked with Driscoll and Chris Davies, whom the club confirmed will be his number two.

Rodgers said: “Bringing Glen to Celtic is great news for our players who will benefit from the huge breadth of knowledge he has across all areas of performance. “The experience he will bring to the club will be invaluable to our players and I know he will work very well with the excellent medical and performance staff already at the club. “Performance, fitness, strength and conditioning, rehabilitation and injury prevention are all crucial elements in the modern game and we will be using Glen’s wide range of skills to ensure we achieve the highest standards across these areas.“ Glen’s talent in this area has been a massive support to me at both Liverpool and Swansea and I know he will deliver great work and great benefits to our players at Celtic.”

Driscoll stated: “I am absolutely delighted to join Celtic, such an iconic name in world football and I am really looking forward to teaming up again with both Brendan and Chris.

“We have some highly talented elite players at the club and my role will be to ensure we give them all we can to achieve any extra edge possible.

“The areas I work in play a huge role ultimately in achieving maximum performance levels, in preventing injury and ensuring a high level of player availability.

“We are looking forward to meeting the squad in the next few weeks. Myself and the other performance staff at Celtic will work together and do all we can to help our players

achieve their own objectives as individual athletes and help the team as a whole deliver success to our fans.”