Callum McGregor will take the best of Scott Brown into his captaincy at Celtic

The 28-year-old Scotland international was handed the “massive honour” of taking over the armband from Brown who departed for Aberdeen this summer.

Ahead of the Champions League qualifying clash with Midtjylland at Parkhead on Tuesday night, McGregor admitted that his former team-mate was a huge inspiration.

He said: “Scott was hugely successful as club captain here. I had the honour to work closely beside him, seen how he operates every day, the way he drives the changing room, the way he drives the club.

“I could have had no better education in that sense.

“So I just want to follow that as closely as I can and obviously you have to put your own personality on it, your own stamp on it.

“Ultimately it is a new era for the club and I am just desperate to get to work and make it successful.”

McGregor, who came through Celtic’s academy system, had a loan spell at Notts County earlier in his career before making his Hoops debut in July 2014 in a Champions League qualifier against KR Reykjavik in Iceland, when he scored the only goal of the game.

The midfielder has made 326 appearances, scoring 53 goals, and has won 14 trophies – six league titles, four Scottish Cups and four League Cups – and he knows the importance of European football to Celtic.

He said: “Everyone is in good spirits. The boys trained well today, a real intensity about the session.

“We know how important these games are, they set you up for the season. Everyone is in a good frame of mind, confident and ready to go.”

New Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou described giving McGregor the captaincy as “an easy decision but the best decision.”

“There is no doubt he is a leader,” said the Australian.

“Irrespective of the captaincy, he looks like a person who would be a leader in the dressing room anyway.

“There are certain traditions and values that need to be upheld, irrespective of who are the custodians at any given time, and having someone like Callum, who has grown up at this football club, he knows those clearly.”