John Kennedy – Callum McGregor can be Celtic’s difference maker at Ibrox

Celtic have made life difficult for themselves this season by blowing an eight-point lead over their closest rivals before Christmas time when alarm bells were starting to ring for Brendan Rodgers and his men. Defeats at Rugby Park to Kilmarnock and at Celtic Park to Hearts in December, derailed the team and with such a lack of consistency when it comes to picking our best players, we’ve suffered in the process.

Cameron Carter-Vickers and Reo Hatate returned to the starting line-up together for the first time in a long while at the Toni Macaroni Arena against Livingston at the weekend, and the manager and his assistant will be hoping the captain makes it a Treble when they head to Govan to face Phillipe Clement’s side. “He’s the captain, the leader of the group,” Kennedy said via Glasgow Times. “Everyone turns to him.

“The good thing is that outwith Cal, we have other good leaders in Joe (Hart), Cameron (Carter-Vickers), Ali Johnston and these boys. They can pick up when he’s not there. But as the manager has said, hopefully Cal will be back in [full]training in the middle of the week. We’ll get him through that then the manager will decide later in the week whether or not he’s fit to play. It does [lift others when he is playing]and that’s what good players do.

“It’s not just their impact as a player. It’s very much about what they do for people around them.The best players you always see making others better, and that’s very much the case with Cal. When they’re not there sometimes the other guys have to carry a wee bit of an extra burden and there is more pressure on them. But the more good players you have in the team, the better.”

The former Celtic defender added that it feels as if the team are starting to gain traction again, with players returning from injury and others hitting their stride at the ideal time. “Coming into this run-in, when you start to get all your players back in the group, it definitely makes us stronger,” he said. “You can sense that. It gives us more belief and more momentum to go into the important part of the season.”