With a fee of around £1.25million thrashed out, O'Neill will sit down with the Danish defender to discuss terms when he returns from the Easter Road side's pre-season tour of Finland tomorrow.

Laursen could be joined this week by a new goalkeeper, with Coventry's Magnus Hedman, who sat out yesterday's 1-1 draw against Dundee United, keen to negotiate a transfer from the Nationwide First Division to challenge Robert Douglas for the No.1 jersey at Celtic.

After O'Neill watched his champions defeat Parma 2-1 at Celtic Park yesterday, he said: 'The clubs have agreed a fee for Laursen. I haven't met the player yet, but I will do. It's unlikely that he will be available for Tuesday. I am making inroads with other targets.'

Tuesday sees Celtic take on St Mirren at Love Street in a hastily arranged fixture to give more of O'Neill's players' fitness tests. This has been a pre-season riddled with injury problems for the Celtic manager and it shows no signs of abating.

John Hartson hurt his knee before Wednesday's match against Ajax and missed the Parma game, while neither Johan Mjallby nor Bobo Balde are expected to feature in Paisley.

O'Neill said: 'Johan was injured in training and it's a bit early for Bobo, although he's improving. We could've done without losing Alan Thompson for six weeks. We're still striving for fitness and sharpness but it was good to get players like Stephen Crainey and Joos Valgaeren back.

'Now it is all about appetite, energy and desire during the season as I know we have the ability.'

O'Neill's mind will turn to Europe in midweek as he is set to take in the first leg of the tie to decide which side - MSK Zilina or Basel - will face Celtic in the Champions League qualifier next month.