Celtic 'set' for Cork City pre-season friendly as Brendan Rodgers prepares for Ireland trip

Celtic will reportedly make the trip over to Ireland to take on Cork City in a pre-season encounter this summer.

Brendan Rodgers' men played out an entertaining 3-2 victory against League of Ireland outfit Sligo in October, and LOI Talk now claim that the Premiership champions will return to the country during their preparations for the 2025/26 campaign. Cork City owner Dermot Usher had previously revealed that they were in talks to host a big club from the UK in a friendly match next summer, which now appears to be Celtic.

They claim that the fixture is being lined up to take place at Pairc Uí Caoimh, which is home to Cork City's gaelic football team and has a capacity crowd of 45,000, making it the third largest GAA stadium in Ireland. Often simply referred to as 'The Park', the venue, which was opened in 1976 has also hosted several major concerts including Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, The Stone Roses, Oasis, Elton John and Ed Sheeran. Ireland's top football division continues to grow, with 33,000 in attendance at the clash between Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers last summer.

Celtic's strong roots in Ireland should make for a highly-anticipated fixture and if it goes ahead it will be the first meeting between the teams since July 2013, when a youthful Hoops' side triumphed 2-0 against Cork courtesy of goals from Patrik Twardzik and Lewis Kidd. They had also faced off four years earlier in the summer of 2009 with Paddy McCourt scoring the only goal of the game.