Retiring from Scotland but not slowing down at Celtic as team-mate lifts lid on influence of quiet captain

McGregor has been a near ever-present figure in the Celtic and Scotland midfield – playing between 50 and 60 games per season – since making his breakthrough around a decade ago. The demands took a toll last season when McGregor picked up an achilles injury and then had to accelerate his comeback to make sure he was fit for both Celtic's title run-in and Euro 2024 with Scotland.

He is the second Celtic captain after Scott Brown to announce his international retirement at the age of 31, albeit Brown returned to the national set-up briefly. The decision to focus purely on club football helped Brown prolong his Celtic career – skippering the side for another four more years – and McGregor will now hope to do likewise as he bids to become the most decorated Celtic player in history.

“I hope the same thing happens with Callum," Scales said. "He’s 31 but the way he plays, how available he is and how he gets about the pitch – you forget that he’s in his 30’s now. I just can’t see him slowing down anytime soon. The way he goes about his business, it doesn’t look like he’ll do that. Making this decision, it will obviously help him having those extra days recovery when the international breaks are on.

“It should benefit him physically, in terms of playing for Celtic and that’s obviously a big positive for us. Listen, Callum is robust anyway and he’s been available for the majority of our games even when he’s been playing for Scotland. But this takes away that risk of getting injured when he’s away on international duty. It can let him focus 100 per cent on being successful at Celtic. Selfishly, that will be beneficial to us."

Scales admits it would be hard to imagine a Celtic team without McGregor due to the influence he has both on and off the pitch.

“I think you can see, even from the outside, how big a player he is for us,” he added. “He’s brilliant for the dressing-room because he leads by example. Callum’s not the most vocal captain but he doesn’t need to be. You can see by the way he works that if you can go about your day as he does, you’re going to go in the right direction. He influenced me by how he behaves as a player and as a person around the place.”

After starting their title defence with a 4-0 win over Kilmarnock, Celtic travel to Easter Road on Sunday to face a Hibs side looking to bounce back from a dismal 3-0 defeat at St Mirren on the opening weekend.

“It’s a really difficult place to go because Hibs are a good side and we feel they definitely perform better at home than they do away,” Scales said. “You do notice the difference, they have more belief at Easter Road.

“But we know that if we go there and focus on our game, our style - and bring our intensity - we can go a level above. We’re confident we can get a good result. It’s just about how high a level we can get to."