Scott Sinclair due for Preston North End medical as deal moves closer

The Celtic attacker is due at Deepdale today to undergo a medical ahead of the proposed move.

Sinclair, 30, flew home to Glasgow yesterday from Dubai where Celtic are based for a winter training camp.

It is understood that terms have been agreed with the players’s agent and with Celtic on the move which would be a permanent transfer.

Should Sinclair sign on the dotted line, it would be second time lucky for North End in their pursuit of him.

They enquired about taking him on loan last July but at the time Celtic would only sell.

His contract at Celtic Park has since run down into the final six months and Sinclair has not had much of a look in this season – he has only featured in seven games, scoring twice.

When PNE made their approach last summer, they had recently sold Callum Robinson to Sheffield United.

It is the type of influence Robinson used to have on games which North End see Sinclair providing.

In his three-and-a-half years at Celtic he has scored 62 goals – 25 of those came in his first season in Scotland.

It was Brendan Rodgers who signed him for Celtic from Aston Villa in August 2016.

After starting his career with Bristol Rovers, Chelsea signed Bath-born Sinclair as a teenager.

They sold him to Swansea in the summer of 2010, his debut for the South Wales club coming against PNE.

Manchester City bought Sinclair for £6.2m in August 2012 but he did not get much game time there, with him having loan spells at West Bromwich Albion and Villa.

He made the move to Villa a permanent one, but after one season there went to Celtic.

North End’s attack needs the lift Sinclair’s play will bring, with them scoring in only three of the last 10 Championship games.

On the outgoing front, PNE left-back Josh Earl looks set for another loan move.

Earl returned to Deepdale over the weekend after his five-month stay at Bolton came to an end.

Two Scottish clubs and one in England are interested in taking the 21-year-old for the remainder of the season.

North End want him to get a run of games, something an ankle injury prevented him from doing at Bolton until the latter weeks of his loan.

Another PNE left-back, Kevin O’Connor, has agreed a loan move to League of Ireland club Waterford. That will take him through to the end of his contract in the summer.