As painful as it was for Scotland supporters to watch Luka Modric orchestrate the national side’s demise at Euro 2020, it was even tougher for the boys in dark blue who were tasked with trying to keep tabs on the Real Madrid midfielder.

At least Callum McGregor had the consolation of his goal, which briefly pulled Scotland level against Croatia and gave the nation hope, as well as the lessons he took from watching such a maestro at work at close quarters. Close-ish, anyway.

That was just one of the experiences with Scotland at their first major tournament in over two decades that McGregor hopes has brought him back to Celtic a more rounded player.

“I feel I had a good summer in terms of going to the Euros with Scotland and getting my first goal,” McGregor said.

“I feel as if I have come back confident and ready to attack the new season.

“Your goal as a professional footballer is to play at the highest level possible and to play at a major tournament for your country is the best of the best. As good as it can get.

“When you see the quality of the opposition and the individual battles you go through in those games there is no question that makes you a better player.

“Playing against Luka Modric was certainly a learning experience.

“I now want to take that experience back to club level, I feel it’s been good for me.”

The Celtic McGregor left to join up with the Scotland camp bears little resemblance to the one he has come back to, with one of the major changes around the club having McGregor at its centre, of course.

The new Celtic captain is adjusting to his new role well, and hopes that he can lead his players through their first major test of the season by reaching the third stage of Champions League qualifying against FC Midjtylland tonight.

“There is a little bit more responsibility now with the club and I seem to be taking that in my stride at the minute,” he said.

“I feel like I have started well. It has only been a couple of games and there are going to be tough moments. I am not naive to think that won’t be the case.

“But I am enjoying it just now and the one thing I will always do for this club is give my absolute best every time I go on the pitch and hopefully have more good days than bad.”

One of his key early duties is to welcome new arrivals like Carl Starfelt and Kyogo Furuhashi to the club, and in taking a leaf from Scott Brown’s book, impose upon them as soon as possible what is expected of them as a Celtic player.

“I am actually going to have a chat with the two boys [on Tuesday] afternoon to see how they are.

“I think they are down in London doing their isolation and I will grab a wee chat with them on the phone.

“Everybody is looking forward to welcoming them into the club and we want to do everything we can to help them start off on the right foot.

“That’s one of the responsibilities I will take on as captain – to welcome people in as quickly as possible. Broony was great at that. He always made the new players feel welcome and straight away they understood how big a club it was just from talking to him.

“They saw his intensity and the way he led by example. It’s up to the guys who have been at a club for a while to show new players the ropes and that’s definitely something we will be taking a look at.”

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