Callum McGregor thinking of Celtic fans as he fights to be fit for Rangers clash

Callum McGregor is putting himself in the shoes of the fans who would do anything to play against Rangers for Celtic as he bids to shake off a calf injury ahead of this weekend’s derby.

McGregor has gone off in each of the last two games and has not trained with the team yet this week, although he has been working outside on his own with the physios.

The 31-year-old will step up his efforts on Saturday in a bid to make Sunday’s Celtic Park clash.

“Hopefully I’ll be good to train and then if I train, I will be fine,” he said. “It’s been a tough week but I’m trying to do everything I can to be available.

“I’ve said it a million times, to play for Celtic is a huge honour and you have to put yourself in the position that many, many supporters would do. You have to play through the pain barrier and and give yourself every chance to be involved in these games because, one, it means so much to the club, and two, it means a lot personally as well.

“You want to play in these games and these are the games that as football players are the best days.

“So when you bring all that together, then you feel a huge sense of responsibility to push as hard as you possibly can to make sure that you’re available.”

A masked McGregor previously rushed back to make a surprise start in a 3-0 win over Rangers in January 2023, just 10 days after suffering a fractured cheekbone.

“I probably had that many painkillers I didn’t feel anything,” McGregor joked. “But when you get a night like that, the performance, the result, everything else is insignificant to that.

“You’ve made it on the pitch and the team have won and that’s all you can ask for. It’s such a big game, huge expectation and the atmosphere is enough to get you through it anyway.”

McGregor is also determined to ensure he has a different feeling after the final whistle to their previous derby encounter.

The champions suffered a 3-0 new year loss at Ibrox to experience derby defeat for only the second time in 15 matches.

That memory is likely to ensure Celtic’s 16-point lead at the top of the William Hill Premiership does not lead to any complacency.

“We’ve bounced back and got ourselves in a really strong position again,” McGregor said. “But the feeling for us after the game was we never did ourselves justice.

“So we want to come off the pitch fast and foremost, feeling good about what we’ve done in the game and the performance and what we’ve given to it. And generally, if we do all those things, then we’ll win the game and that’ll put us in a much better place.”

Celtic have had the advantage of a free midweek while Rangers faced 120 minutes of action on Thursday night before beating Fenerbahce on penalties to reach the Europa League quarter-finals.

The champions looked sharp when beating Hibernian last weekend after their first free midweek in 11 weeks and will be lining up another flying start.

“If you can get on top of the game, the crowd come with you and it’s an amazing atmosphere,” McGregor said.

“Last week was probably as good as we’ve been for a while – hunger, willingness to run and freshness, get inside the pressure, get the ball back and Hibs struggled to to live with that.

“So if we can bring a sort of similar level of performance, then we hope that that’s enough to to give us a good day.”