Celtic captain Callum McGregor has revealed that he put his career on the line to lead the club to the Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup double last season.
McGregor risked a rupture as well as a potential nine months on the sidelines due to a troublesome Achilles injury sustained against Dundee in the 7-1 Premiership victory at Parkhead in February.
Miraculously McGregor shaved off seven weeks of recovery time to help Brendan Rodgers's men get over the line in their quest for silverware. McGregor was missing for a total of 38 days as he returned in April to spearhead the club's campaign for the title and Scottish Cup.
Whilst there was never a question of McGregor ever having to go under the surgeon's knife, he insists that it was a gamble worth taking even though it could have backfired spectacularly on him.
The 31-year-old admitted that despite his amazing powers of healing he was still taken aback at some of the negativity he had to contend with when he returned to the Celtic side for the climax of the domestic campaign.
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McGregor said: “I get asked the same question every year if I have had enough rest! "People get injured and then come back, it’s fine, that’s what happens. Just because you get an injury at 30, it doesn’t mean you are going to die.
“It was just an injury and it’s fine now. There was no question of surgery. It was a 12-week injury but you don’t have 12 weeks, you’ve got five – so let’s go. You grit your teeth, and that’s what happened.
"To take seven weeks off a 12-week injury, people should say 'well done', but there you go! That’s the job now. It’s 11 months of the year and you need to be on the month and giving your best.
“Sure, every player will be tired at some parts of the season, but you are a professional, you get your head down and work hard. You try to give your maximum. I’m no different.
"How do you take seven weeks off a 12-week injury? Just by pure determination and rest and recovery. You do everything you possibly can because the end goal is bigger than you. That’s what you have to give.
"For sure it could have backfired, but you have to take the risk. It was my decision. The professional physios inside the building have to give you both sides, ‘this is the worst-case scenario, this is the best-case scenario' and you might land somewhere in between.
"Ultimately it’s up to the player and if the player wants to make himself available then it’s up to him. The option for me was to sit and watch it unfold or get back inside and try to help as much as I could. I think the way the season finished, showed it was a good decision.
"The worst-case scenario was probably a rupture and that would have been nine months on the sidelines. It was a ten on the pain scale. It was sore all the way through, but you find a level where you can sort of manage it.
"The good thing for me over the years is that my pain threshold is quite high with the broken face situation that was sore as well but I could deal with it, so I got back out on the pitch and tried to help the team.
"That’s just the way that I have been brought up and, like I said, it means more to that the team is successful than me having a sore face or a sore leg or whatever it is. If I can physically function I want to be out there."
However, at no point was McGregor advised by the club medics at Celtic to give the 2024 European Championships in Germany with Scotland a swerve.
He said: "Had I taken the 12 weeks to get back, the chances were I wasn’t going to the Euros anyway. I just wouldn’t have played for 12 weeks before. It was my decision after they gave me the best-case scenario followed by the worst-case scenario.
"I felt it was more important to try and help the team. The aim was to try and shave as much time as possible off the 12 weeks, knowing that we were running out of time."
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McGregor made his Celtic comeback in the 3-3 draw against Rangers at Ibrox on April 7, and it was his mistake that led to the loss of Abdullah Sima's deflected strike that made it 2-2 on the day after Philippe Clement's men had come from 0-2 down.
He confessed that he was in excruciating pain when he took to the field in Govan that day but did not indulge in any form of rituals to deal with it.
McGregor said: "I didn’t take any painkillers. It was just about resting as much as I could. With the Achilles, I had to keep resting as much as I could. Complete rest is not good for you either.
"So can you get into a cycle where you are always moving but keeping things switched on? If you switch it off for 12 weeks then you have no chance.’ "I’d trained one day in the previous five weeks before the 3-3 game at Ibrox…so, yes, it was sore.
"In every walk of life, there are people who don’t have that pain threshold. When you are a professional footballer and you want to play and you want to help your team then you do as much as you can."
McGregor's decision to return to the first team fold as soon as possible proved to be an inspiring one for both his club and his teammates. Japanese winger Daizen Maeda took a leaf out of McGregor's book when he returned from a seemingly impossible hamstring injury which threatened to curtail his campaign. Vindication and salvation for the captain came in the form of the Premiership and League Cup.
McGregor said: "When you are trying to build a winning culture that’s what you need. You need that type of sacrifice from the players as well.
"I did it, Daizen did it, and we finished with two trophies from the last three or four weeks of the season. So it was worth it and if you asked Daizen he would tell you the same. I would like to think we were a good influence on the rest of our teammates. I hope so. The finish to the season with the two trophies was enough for me to think I made the right decision. If you asked the lads maybe they appreciated it as well. It’s life that you don’t always get appreciation from everywhere but you learn to deal with that."
