Callum McGregor praised the hard work, intensity and team spirit among Celtic’s ranks on day two of the club’s mid-season training regime in Dubai. The midfielder and deputy captain also hailed the physical and psychological benefits the camp can offer the Hoops, and said everyone knows exactly what’s required of them in the second half of the season.

The 27-year-old said that winning all three of the champions’ upcoming games in hand is of utmost importance, and said harnessing the disappointment of last week’s derby defeat can push the squad forward in the weeks and months ahead.

“The camp lets us come away into the warm climate and have intense training, and that’s the main benefit of the fitness work – it’s something you can’t replicate at home in the cold weather,” said McGregor. “The added benefit of the heat improves your fitness when you’re working at that intensity, it gives you a different level of fitness when you go back, and it’s pretty much impossible to recreate that back in the colder climate.

“The objective of the camp is to work as hard as we possibly can and take that into the next stretch of the season. It’s slightly different circumstances this time, but the trip and its purpose is exactly the same: we come here, we train exceptionally hard, we hit the reset button and then we go again.

“The trip has been the same for the last few years, as have the benefits of that in terms of fitness work, keeping everyone at their sharpest and getting the boys who’ve maybe not played as much football up to speed.”

"We come here, we train exceptionally hard, we hit the reset button and then we go again."

From a team-building perspective, McGregor said spending 24 hours-a-day with team-mates can also help performances on the pitch. This starts with Hibs at Celtic Park on Monday, January 11, and, after a week of solid, high-intensity training, the deputy skipper looks forward to hitting the ground running as the Hoops enter the latter half of the campaign.

He added: “The challenge at Celtic is to try and win every game. When you don’t, naturally, there’s a disappointment from everyone. It’s exactly the same for the players as well, and you have to deal with that disappointment in the right way. When you get the chance to put it right and rectify it, then that’s exactly what you have to do.

“It’s a big task, we’ve got three games in hand, and we have to win all three of those to close the gap and give us a chance. We’ve known that since we reached the cup final last year – we missed a game in the league from that, so we know that the points gap looks bigger than what it actually is.

“Naturally, when we start to play those games in hand, you start to eat up the gap. From there, we know that anything can happen in the sense that, once you get close, you start to see what teams are made of and how far you can push them. That’s the objective for us: to get within touching distance, to close the gap and see how close we can get it.

“And that’s the objective of the training camp: to bring everyone together, train super hard, and then when we come back everyone is refreshed and working towards the objective come the end of the season.”

Callum McGregor: We’re working tirelessly ahead of second half of season