NEIL Lennon says that Celtic may still try to sign David Turnbull in the future after his proposed transfer to the club from Motherwell broke down.

The long-running transfer saga finally came to an unsatisfactory end for all parties after a knee issue uncovered during Turnbull’s medical scuppered the original deal agreed between the clubs.

The 19-year-old requires immediate preventative surgery, an operation that will see him sit out the next six months in order to avoid a potentially even more serious injury down the line.

Celtic were keen to broker a new deal that would see Turnbull join the club on loan for the season before signing him permanently in the future, but with Motherwell unprepared to accept such an arrangement, the Fir Park club finally pulled the plug on talks late on Wednesday night. He will now remain a Motherwell player and undergo his rehab with the club.

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“The deal is off,” Lennon said. “We tried everything to find a resolution to what was obviously a difficult situation. But we couldn’t reach an agreement.

“I’m disappointed for him, as, through no fault of his own, the deal has fallen through. Hopefully he makes a quick recovery and gets back to playing, but it won’t be with us.

“Could we revisit it? Absolutely. But the club did everything we could to make it happen. But he’s a Motherwell player and we move on.

“We’ll have to look elsewhere. We were looking at that position anyway and thinking about bringing in another one on top of David.

“We’ll keep working on it.”

Meanwhile, Celtic are understood to have an interest in bringing Middlesbrough utility man Paddy McNair to the club.

The 24-year-old former Manchester United man, who can play at the back or in midfield, is also reportedly a target for Sheffield United, but the Scottish champions may now step up their interest in the player having missed out on Turnbull.

Bolton youngster Luca Connell was pictured at Celtic Park yesterday, but a proposed move from Bolton may not be as straightforward as Celtic had originally hoped.

Celtic manager Lennon admitted yesterday that bringing him to the club was a possibility, believing that the 18-year-old was a free agent and so available for a sum of around £250,000 in compensation to the English club.

However, a potential snag to the deal was uncovered last night as Bolton claimed that Connell was contracted to them until next summer as a third-year scholar, meaning that Celtic would have to negotiate a transfer fee to land the young Irishman.

The move for Toulouse defender Christopher Jullien looks to be a great deal more straightforward though, with Lennon hoping to have the £7m man joining up with his squad in Vienna on Saturday.Meanwhile, Celtic manager Lennon has hit back at West Brom Technical Director Luke Edwards after he criticised the club's handling of loan player Oli Burke last season, and said he was unaware if the player had any issues with his treatment.

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Asked if Burke had spoken of any issues in person, Lennon told Sky Sports News: "Not that I was aware of. We treated him very well.

"He played a lot of games. Maybe in hindsight I was too good in treating him too well at times, compared to the rest of the group.

"I have no idea where this sort of tirade has come from. This could have been dealt with privately and professionally.

"As a club we have to defend ourselves robustly because it is totally unacceptable.

"Without any communication beforehand, the person has come out and publicly condemned the club and myself.

"I think it is unprofessional and totally unjustified as well.

"I don't know where the justification for those comments came from. Obviously we were very robust in our response.

“I don't know who the individual was who was criticising either my style of management or the club in the treatment of Oli Burke. But there is just no foundation or evidence for that whatsoever."