Callum McGregor facing Celtic shirt fight against his MUM as Atletico switch up required to keep pace

Callum McGregor knows he’s in for one of his toughest midfield battles of the season at the Estadio Metropolitano tonight. But he’s hoping his hardest scrap this week will end up being with his mum.

The Hoops captain is not a man for collecting jerseys despite going up against some of the continent’s biggest stars in his 91 previous encounters in Europe. McGregor tends to give away his tops to charity but keeps hold of the ones when he finds the back of the net – and gives them to his mother. It might be a different story if he can notch a winner in Spain this evening though to reignite Celtic’s Champions League dream.

McGregor said: “No I’m not really a collector of shirts. It’s not for any particular reason, I just never started doing it so I’m probably too old to start now. A lot of the boys do it but it’s never been me.

"Maybe if I started way back then, I’d have some decent ones. I’ll just need to keep putting all of mine up on the wall!

"I keep the ones that I score in. The others go to charities and other things. If I score in one my mum takes it. She’s got a big double sized wardrobe with them all in it.

“If I score against Atletico she’ll need to fight me to get that one off me…”

Mind you, McGregor knows he might not get many chances against Atletico Madrid. The 30-year-old has bags of experience at this level and knows more than anyone it’ a heck of a jump from domestic to European level.

Saturday is a case in point, when Celtic had an incredible 39 attempts at goal in Dingwall in the win against Ross County. He said: “We’ll not get 39 shots on Tuesday night, definitely not. Unless we shoot every time we get the ball!

“It shows you though that the higher up the level you go then of course the chances become