Brendan Rodgers lauds ‘brilliant’ captain Callum McGregor after stunning strike

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers hailed Callum McGregor after the Hoops captain began life after Scotland duty with a stunning strike in a 2-0 victory at Easter Road.

The 31-year-old midfielder struck from nearly 30 yards two days after announcing his retirement from international football.

“He was brilliant,” Rodgers said. “That’s what happens when you retire from Scotland!

“Hopefully there are many more goals to come.  It doesn’t surprise me. He’s scored so many goals for me, especially in the first spell, then a few this spell. Twenty-five to 30 yards out, it was a wonderful strike. That’s what you need in your team and he possesses quality.”

Steve Clarke was watching from the Easter Road stands and Rodgers produced a mischievous grin when asked if he had sympathy for the Scotland manager following McGregor’s decision.

He added: “He’s played so many games, hasn’t he? I think when I give Cal a few days off on international breaks, he’ll relish it.

“I do feel for Steve because he’s a quality player, of course. But from a Celtic perspective, for longevity, for him, his career, his recovery, there’s so many games now, it’s a 12-month season.

“For him to get these little periods of recovery, to recover and rest, will be important for him. We’ve got no winter break this year either.

“He’s such an intense player for me on and off the pitch. Those little windows where you can give him that breather will do him the word of good.”

Celtic took the lead inside three minutes through Nicolas Kuhn and looked like they would go on to record a resounding win after McGregor’s 19th-minute goal. However, the goal threat dissipated after a flurry of chances early in the second half.

Rodgers said: “In the second half, we just had a little spell where the game became too long for us. We didn’t shorten the game how we normally do and play quickly through the lines, so it got stretched a wee bit too much for my liking. But we always had control of the game.

“If I was nit-picking, I would say we have to be more clinical. We scored two and again could have had four or five.”

Rodgers took off Kyogo Furuhashi after the forward suffered a shoulder problem, although he is not expected to miss any games.

“His shoulder popped out,” Rodgers said. “I think it’s just one of those ones that, he had a fall and it knocked it out. The guys put it back in again, but he felt the soreness. I don’t need to risk him.”

With no other experienced strikers, winger Mikey Johnston replaced Furuhashi before going off himself following a facial knock.

“There are other players who can go in and play that position,” Rodgers said. “And that’s what we have to do while we’re waiting for players to come in.”

Hibernian head coach David Gray bemoaned the loss of the early goal and a poor first-half display which saw his side failed to register a shot.

“The thing that concerned me the most was the lack of composure on the ball at times,” Gray added. “We knew what we were going to face, even though some of the players had never faced it before.

“We need to learn quickly. Because we face it again in seven days’ time. So we need to learn that giving them a goal after three minutes makes it a long afternoon.

“Up until half-time, we carried nowhere near enough threat. A lot of individual errors. Celtic dominated from start to finish in that 45 minutes – and we were lucky to go in just 2-0 down.

“The second half was more positive. We were braver on the ball, carried a bit more threat. We still didn’t do enough to get back in the game. I’m not shying away from that. We know we need to be better.”