{"id":320293,"date":"2025-12-02T10:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T10:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/320293\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T10:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T10:10:09","slug":"callum-mcgregor-addresses-scotland-retirement-u-turn-possibility-as-celtic-captain-gets-honest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/320293\/","title":{"rendered":"Callum McGregor addresses Scotland retirement U turn possibility as Celtic captain gets honest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Parkhead captain brought the curtain down on his international career last year\"Scotland'sScotland’s Callum McGregor during a UEFA Euro 2024 Qualifier between Scotland and Spain(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Callum McGregor says he\u2019s not thinking about jumping on the Scotland<\/a> World Cup bandwagon. But the Hoops midfielder has refused to slam the door on the prospect of a dramatic return to the fold.<\/p>\n

McGregor retired from international duty on the back of Euro 2024 to focus on his Celtic career<\/a>. The Parkhead skipper has been thrilled to see Steve Clarke<\/a> \u2019s side shatter the 28-year hoodoo to bag a precious place at next summer\u2019s extravaganza in North America.<\/p>\n

McGregor \u2013 who will turn 33 during next summer\u2019s World Cup<\/a> \u2013 said: \u201cTo be honest, it\u2019s not something I\u2019ve thought of. Obviously the guys have done amazingly, they qualified in the last international break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lot of good teammates and good friends in there, so I\u2019m extremely happy for them. And for me, I just want to concentrate on the job I\u2019ve got here. I don\u2019t want to get drawn into anything like that, I\u2019ve got a big, big job here, change of manager soon probably, so I\u2019ll just keep trying to play well and help the team and whatever will be, will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, McGregor insists Hoops ace Arne Engels is providing plenty of bang for his bucks. The Belgian playmaker has hit top form under caretaker boss Martin O\u2019Neill after stalling at the start of the season.<\/p>\n

Engels landed last summer in a club record \u00a311million deal from German side Augsburg and struggled to live up to the massive fee.<\/p>\n

But McGregor said: \u201cListen, I love Arne, he\u2019s some player for a kid, maybe 22 now.<\/p>\n

“He was 21 when he came in with a big price tag last year. Maybe people unfairly judge him based on that, but he\u2019s a tremendous player, who plays with a big heart and big energy and will always get better, because he has the right attitude.<\/p>\n

“So, it\u2019s our job to make him continue to grow. I was delighted for him on Sunday. He was outstanding on Thursday night, so hopefully he recovers, and we go again [against Dundee] on Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Parkhead captain brought the curtain down on his international career last yearScotland’s Callum McGregor during a UEFA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,137519,48,13881,127257,142291,9328,561,82,127254,13009],"class_list":["post-320293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-callum-mcgregor","tag-canada","tag-celtic-fc","tag-scotland-football-team","tag-scotland-u19s-football-team","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-steve-clarke","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}