Callum McGregor’s most minutes stat is not cause for Celtic celebration

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Celtic have highlighted Callum McGregor’s mammoth contribution to their 2018/19 season.

Celtic have posted an article on their official website highlighting the fact that midfielder Callum McGregor played more minutes of competitive football than any player in world football last season.

The club say that McGregor managed to rack up an incredible 5,894 minutes of action ahead of Daley Blind of Ajax (5,819) and Ruben Dias of Benfica (5,790).

McGregor has proven to be Celtic’s iron man and there’s no doubt he should receive acknowledgement for a long, gruelling season, especially when it ended in ‘treble treble’ success for the player and his teammates.

It’s a fantastic achievement.

However, the stat also points to a real problem in the Celtic squad; they don’t have capable cover for the Scotland international and overusing him could lead to injury and fitness problems in future.

Kieran Tierney is another who has amassed an enormous amount of minutes in action over the last few seasons and his chronic pain problems eventually kept him out of the team for much of last term.

Does McGregor need to be playing almost 60 competitive games a season for his club? Factor in international duty and it’s a schedule that can’t continue, especially with such a short break between campaigns.

Celtic won the Scottish Cup at the end of May and had returned to pre-season training before the end of June to prepare for early European qualifiers.

The club should have the talent available to be able to rest the 26-year-old adequately, keeping him at peak fitness for the club’s most important domestic encounters and European fixtures.

It’s not a statistic to be proud of when they have the financial resources to solve the issue.

Only Olivier Ntcham really stands out as competent back-up, with Scott Brown and Ryan Christie often playing alongside McGregor.

Nir Bitton has also returned to fitness but in recent matches has had to fill in at centre half due to depth issues elsewhere in the team.

In fairness, the club have moved to sign Luca Connell this summer, but given he is still just a teenager can he step up to the demands of a Celtic first-team that will be chasing every trophy again this season? That’s yet to be determined.

More signings may need to be made in the position or all those minutes could take their toll on McGregor and leave the Hoops without a key player when the toughest tests arrive this season.