Celtic are leading the way to sign Nottingham Forest defender Scott McKenna this month, according to a report.

The Scotland international is expected to leave the Premier League club in January after falling out of favour at the City Ground.

Forest are keen to sell the 27-year-old before they lose him for nothing in the summer when his contract expires.

It emerged earlier this week that Brendan Rodgers held an interest in the former Aberdeen centre-back.

Now, according to the Nottingham Post, it seems the Scottish champions are in pole position to land McKenna. 

While Forest wants to sell, it's said the deal would be a loan move.

Rodgers is keen to bolster his defence in this window amid the ongoing title fight with Rangers.

Nat Phillips has returned to Liverpool following his short long spell in Glasgow, while Gustaf Lagerbielke's time also looks to be in doubt just six months after he arrived on a permanent deal.

Cameron Carter-Vickers, Liam Scales, Maik Nawrocki and Stephen Welsh are the remaining first-choice centre-halves. 

In turn, Yuki Kobayashi's time at Celtic also appears to be up after just a year. He arrived from Vissel Kobe 12 months ago under Ange Postecoglou.

He's failed to make an appearance under Rodgers this term though, and the Daily Mail states that the 23-year-old is likely to join Yokohama F. Marinos, of course now led by Harry Kewell, whom he worked with at Celtic.

READ MORE: Celtic had Declan Rice near miss as Rodgers chats transfers

Meanwhile, Brendan Rodgers says he would like to get his transfer business done early this month, but he used the example of when Celtic missed out on the signing of Declan Rice to exemplify that supporters may need a degree of patience during the January window.

The Celtic manager has revealed that the club were close to securing the services of the now £100m Arsenal and England midfielder during his first spell in charge, only for injuries at West Ham to open up an opportunity for him there, which he seized.