Rovers added one former Celtic youngster to their ranks in their summer, with Connor McBride currently second in the Premier League 2 goalscoring charts after an impressive start to life at the club.

And it appears another former Celtic youngster was set to arrive at Brockhall this summer, for a trial at least, only for it to be postponed because of coronavirus.

Full back Daniel Church made the revelation having just signed for Dumbarton in the Scottish third tier, with a Rovers trial mooted during his search for a new club.

Church ended a 13-year association with Celtic in the summer, having spent time on loan at East Fife last season, and due to have a spell with Rovers as he assessed his options.

However, the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to that, the 20-year-old eventually signing for Dumbarton where he has played three times since joining earlier this month.

He has signed a deal until January, where he will reassess his options, but admits it was a tough time to be without a club given the uncertainties that surrounded the game.

Rovers are always on the look-out for recruits for their Academy set-up, with Tyrhys Dolan having initially been due to link up with the Under-23s, only to burst onto the scene at first-team level, while McBride ended the long search to add more firepower to their youth ranks.

Church told the Lennox Herald: “I’d been training with a few teams since I left Celtic but with the situation the way it is nothing was coming off. Some teams didn’t have the budget to add any players and others had full squads.

“When I left Celtic I found myself going into training with other teams as a new face, and that isn’t something I’d really experienced before but it’s definitely something that I learnt a lot from - and it built me up.

“I was meant to go down to Blackburn Rovers and train there, but they got hit by Covid which stopped any chance of that.

“Jim Duffy then spoke to my agent about coming to Dumbarton and giving me a platform to perform in a team and play again.

“Everything is up in the air right now. You can’t really make any plans for the future. Personally I’m just enjoying being back with a team and I’ll keep doing as much as I can whilst I’m at Dumbarton.”