CALLUM McGregor has played more minutes of competitive football in season 2018/19 than any other player in world football.

It’s a remarkable statistic for the talented midfielder, who played a total of 69 games last season – 59 for Celtic and 10 for Scotland. Indeed only Philippe Coutinho with Brazil and Barcelona (70 games) and Jesus Gallardo with Mexico and Monterrey (72 games) played more games than McGregor.

The 26-year-old midfielder was a key figure for the Hoops last season as they made a clean sweep of the domestic honours in Scotland to secure a historic Treble Treble. He scored six goals throughout the campaign, while he also chalked up 16 assists.

And in 2018/19, he played a remarkable 5,894 minutes of competitive football, more than Ajax defender, Daley Blind (5,819 minutes) and Ruben Dias of Benfica (5,790 minutes).

That run began in Armenia on July 10, 2018 with a game against Alashkert, when he scored in a 3-0 win, while it ended on June 11, 2019, when he played in Scotland's 3-0 defeat away to Belgium.

Speaking exclusively to this week’s Celtic View, Hoops boss Neil Lennon said of the midfielder: “Callum’s a great player and you can see how important he is to the way we play. I do think there are more goals in him and that’s a great start for him to get off the mark in the second competitive game of the season.

“He’s got that creativity and he’s certainly a good finisher. It’s good to see him shooting from outside the box as well. It shows he has that aspect to his game and you don’t always see that because he can be so unselfish and try to find another pass. It’s another string to his bow, but in terms of his all-round game, it’s fantastic.”

Callum McGregor's played more than anyone else in world football