Report: Scotland contingent to return to Celtic training on Monday

By David Walton

June 30, 2021

The Scotland Celtic contingent will return to Lennoxtown for pre-season training as soon as Monday, the Scottish Sun reports.

The report states that the five Celts involved with the national team at Euro 2020 will only get 13 days off this summer.

Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, Greg Taylor, David Turnbull, and James Forrest were all selected by Steve Clarke for this summer’s competition.

New Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou has been working with the rest of the squad over the last week. He took his first training session last Thursday, but has been missing some of his key stars.

Now, he’ll be able to properly get to work ahead of our Champions League clash against Midtjylland on July 20th at Celtic Park.

Massive boost to have Scotland stars back at Celtic so quickly

It’s terrific for the football club that we have these players back so soon. Whilst it would’ve been ideal to have given them a slightly longer break given the season they’ve just endured, we just don’t have the time for it.

It also means that the players will return before the vital pre-season trip to Wales next week. Celtic are due to head south to continue their pre-season prep at world-class facilities. The Hoops will play three pre-season friendly games in Wales against Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton Athletic, and Bristol City respectively.

All three of those games will be competitive. A great way for the players to get back into shape ahead of the Champions League qualifiers. There’s something about this year’s pre-season camp that just looks right.

Celtic midfielder Callum McGregor (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

And it’s an added boost to be able to welcome the Scotland stars back before we even take the trip. It means Postecoglou will be able to get them up to speed well in advance, which is a bonus. Given their short time off, it shouldn’t take them as long to get themselves back to full fitness either.

The one thing Celtic fans don’t need this season is talk of players not being fit enough when we start our competitive games. This was a real problem under Neil Lennon. He would continuously state that certain players weren’t fit even come August time.

It’s time to find out whether this was a player issue or a managerial one. It’s going to be a big couple of weeks ahead for the football club.

In other news, Celtic can’t allow exit stories to linger this summer.