Celtic travel to the capital this Sunday to take on Hibernian in the Hoops’ first away game of the 2024/25 SPFL campaign as the Celts continue the drive to maintain their title run following last weekend’s 4-0 opening-day win over Kilmarnock.

The big news, though, ahead of Brendan Rodgers’ pre-match press conference for the trip to Easter Road was the announcement by Celtic skipper, Callum McGregor that he is retiring from international football with Scotland.

The manager said: “I had obviously spoken to Callum on that and was aware of his intentions. He’s had a great seven years with Scotland with 63 caps.

“From a selfish perspective of course for Celtic it’s really good news because he gets the chance to recover.

“I think you all know the number of games that he plays. So this will give him those little opportunities to have a breather, because he’s really intense, and that’s what I love about him – his appetite to improve.

‘He never has a day off, ever. Even if he has a free day, he’s either recovering or thinking about the game. So these little windows that he will have will give him the chance to do that.’

“But it’s a fantastic career he’s had for his country, he can be very proud of that, and now going into the next part of his career, he has all his focus on Celtic.”

The skipper told the gaffer of his decision, and the manager said of his response to the conversation: “It was more just a listening exercise than anything, because that type of decision, that feeling has to come from the player. I think out of respect he wanted to speak to me on it.

“I’m sure he would have spoken to one or two other people as well, but he was very clear in his mind after a long thought process.

“Deep down he’ll have his own reasons, but I know Callum, really, really well and he’s played so many games for me as manager.

‘I just know that he’s probably now looking at this next part of his career.’

“He’s 31 years of age, he’s still got so many games, he’s played over 500 games in his club career, he’ll have many more to come, but he knows that he’ll need to look after his body.

“Fitness-wise, he’s in really good condition and he’s probably looking more to the future.”

Brendan Rodgers: Callum can be very proud of his Scotland career