This week’s training camp in Portugal was important to the whole Celtic squad, but particularly so for one man, Callum McGregor.

Returning from an injury that has kept him out of action since October, the bounce match against Stade Rennais in the Algarve was his first minutes in a Celtic shirt since coming off against RB Leipzig on October 5.

Fit and ready to go for next week’s first league game back away to Aberdeen, the Celtic captain said the week of training in Portugal was vital for everyone.

Speaking to Celtic TV after the game, McGregor said: “To get back to full training, play today and get back in after a long period off with the injury, it was just good to be back on the pitch and in about the boys.

'It’s been vital (the camp), I’ve been trying to work as hard as I can and run as hard as I can and try and get as fit as possible for the games when we go back.'

“That was the point of the week to try and get as much physical work into the lads as possible, and that will be beneficial when we get back.

“You can’t replicate that, as soon as you go into a match scenario everything becomes a lot more competitive and as much as we try and keep the training levels as competitive as we can you just can’t replicate the games.

“It was good just to get back amongst bodies and get myself moving and get used to the spaces again.”

With Celtic nine points clear at the top of the table going into the return of the competitive action, there’s real excitement amongst the group about the games coming up.

For McGregor, he said the training week has been crucial for the upcoming games and is eager to get going again.

He added: “It’s been good off the back of a week off, everyone was fresh and ready to go again.

“The week’s been tough with some big numbers in there in training, and that was the aim for the week to really try and get as much physical work into the boys as possible, finish with a strong game, recover tomorrow, then full throttle on the games coming.

“You’re off for two or three weeks and you start to miss it already. There’s nothing like playing football for us, it’s the best job in the world and we’ve come back in, worked hard this week and we’re ready for the real stuff again.”

Callum McGregor: Great to be back to the best job in the world