Celtic made their move to land Aberdeen winger Jonny Hayes on Thursday night.

And the Parkhead club hope to agree a deal worth £1.2million for the Republic of Ireland star before Hayes joins Martin O'Neill's squad for Sunday's friendly with Uruguay at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

English Championship sides Cardiff City and Birmingham City are also keen to land the 29-year-old wide man.

Celtic made a formal approach for Aberdeen winger Jonny Hayes on Thursday evening

On Thursday, however, Celtic were trying to broker an agreement on a fee after Aberdeen reluctantly agreed to let their talisman go.

The Pittodrie club are keen to sign Ryan Christie on a permanent basis following the 22-year-old Celtic midfielder's successful loan spell in the Granite City.

If a players-plus-cash agreement proves elusive, though, the Scottish champions face a fee of around £1.2m for Hayes who is under contract with Derek McInnes' Dons until the summer of 2019.

Birmingham manager Harry Redknapp travelled to Glasgow to watch the winger in Saturday's 2-1 Scottish Cup final defeat to Celtic at Hampden, while Cardiff had three bids of £650,000 kicked out by the Pittodrie club in January.

Cardiff remain the biggest threat to Celtic's hopes of landing the player.

But Hayes is keen to be reunited with Parkhead boss Brendan Rodgers, who was his academy coach at Reading.

The Parkhead club hope to agree a deal worth £1.2million for the Republic of Ireland star

With Celtic loan star Patrick Roberts having returned to his parent club Manchester City after last Saturday's clinching of the Treble, Rodgers is in the market for a wide player, a midfielder and a central defender before the Champions League qualifiers begin in mid-July.

And he has long been an admirer of Hayes, who joined Aberdeen from Inverness Caledonian Thistle in 2012.

Despite the move, Parkhead coach John Kennedy claimed yesterday that wholesale changes are unlikely to be made to Rodgers' squad this summer.

'The important thing is keeping the squad together and that we don't make too many changes,' said the former Celtic defender.

'If you can add one or two who can make us better then you want to do that because you want to improve in all areas, but it's very difficult to do that.

'We have a strong group and if you are not going to make the team stronger, then there is no point bringing in extra bodies.

'Our approach will be, if it's better than what we have then we will add, and if not then we just go with what we have got.'

Shamrock Rovers, meanwhile, have confirmed that Celtic will travel to Dublin later this summer for a friendly at Tallaght Stadium on Saturday, July 8.