Former Celtic striker Frank McAvennie has exclusively told Football FanCast that midfielder Ismaila Soro reminds him of both a young N'Golo Kante and Scott Brown.

Soro has enjoyed a productive first campaign at Parkhead, although the return of Scott Brown from injury in February has seen the Ivorian restricted to mainly substitute appearances in recent weeks.

He started 10 Scottish Premiership matches on the bounce during December and January, but has been an unused substitute in six of Celtic's previous 10 league outings, with Brown taking his place back in the midfield alongside Callum McGregor and David Turnbull.

Soro has made 20 appearances in total this season, both scoring and assisting once in the same game against Dundee United, and will be hoping to prove himself to be good enough to be Brown's long-term replacement in Paradise.

And having drawn comparisons to Chelsea's Kante, McAvennie has backed the 22-year-old to step up in Brown's absence.

He told Football FanCast:

"He reminds me of Kante when he was at Leicester and also so much of Scott Brown when he came in the team and caused a lot of fouls and got booked a lot, before the maturity came through.

"I think Soro could be a little tenacious player in there, I think he could do a job."