By Chick Young

Mowbray has not been able to call on McManus this season

Celtic manager Tony Mowbray does not expect defender Stephen McManus to move to Ipswich Town, despite interest from the Championship club.

"Stephen McManus, from my understanding, has no interest in going to Ipswich Town," said Mowbray.

"He is captain of our club and wants to get back into our team.

"Real Madrid could be interested in one of our players, but it does not mean he is going and I would suggest that that is a non-starter."

Scotland defender McManus has just returned from training after missing the start of the season with a knee injury.

But the 26-year-old has been attracting interest from an English Premier League club.

However, Ipswich appear to be leading the chase, their manager, Roy Keane, knowing McManus from his own short spell as a player at Celtic Park.

And it is believed that Celtic would be willing to listen to offers for the player, who is a product of their own youth system, either on loan or in a permanent transfer.

Mowbray appears to be happy with his central defensive pairing of Gary Caldwell and Glenn Loovens, with Darren O'Dea as a potential back-up.

The manager, who arrived from West Brom during the summer to succeed Gordon Strachan, also recently said that there was no guarantee that McManus would remain captain on his return from injury.

McManus was not included in the Celtic squad for Wednesday's Champions League qualifier against Arsenal as he is still short of match practice.

However, despite his lack of games this season, McManus, who has 18 Scotland caps, has been included in George Burley's squad for next week's World Cup qualifiers against Macedonia and Netherlands.

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