Adam Montgomery will be the latest Celtic player sent out on loan this month, The Daily Record's Scott Burns reports. 

The lowdown

Celtic have already granted temporary moves for two of their youngsters in January, with Ewan Henderson and Liam Shaw heading for Hibernian and Motherwell respectively.

As Burns notes in his report, Osaze Urhoghide is likely to follow suit as he holds talks with Dundee FC.

Montgomery has made 18 appearances for The Hoops in all competitions, eight of which have come in European competition.

The latest

Ange Postecoglou has 'high hopes' for Montgomery but he feels it would now be in his best interests to head elsewhere for 'a regular run of first-team games', reports Burns.

It's seen as the next step for the Scotsman, who will then return to Lennoxtown in the summer in search of a greater squad role.

The verdict

The beauty of Celtic's nine-point cushion to the teams third and below is that they can send their young players to some of the stronger Scottish Premiership clubs without fearing repercussions. Motherwell and Hibs, for instance, rank fourth and fifth in the table.

£405,000-rated Montgomery certainly looked to be an important squad player in the first half of the campaign, but the signing of Reo Hatate gives Postecoglou another option at left back.

Long-term, the hope may be that the 19-year-old can be the next Kieran Tierney, living up to Mark Guidi's billing.

Tierney's £24.3million sale was the most lucrative in Celtic's history, and so that would be some going.

In other news, Celtic have made another approach for an Asian-based target.