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Celtic midfielder Callum McGregor was undoubtedly one of the club's top performers last season.

With six goals and 16 assists from midfield he proved to be not only an effective and creative attacking outlet across the course of Celtic's treble-winning season, but also provided a battling spirit in the middle of the park that made him one of the team's outstanding leaders.

In the prime of his career at 26 years of age, he has grown from a player on the fringes of the first-team to effectively becoming the first name on the teamsheet over the last few years.

In fact, not a single player in the entire Celtic squad played more than him across last season, with the Scotland international featuring in a remarkable 59 matches for his side.

Adding the ten caps he has won for his country since the start of last season he's played an incredible 5,894 minutes of football, more than any of the players Transfermarkt tracked globally across 2018/19.

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It's an incredible statistic that stands as a testament to the endurance and durability of the Celtic midfielder.

However, it really shouldn't be considered a positive and the Hoops need only look at the injury troubles of Kieran Tierney as a sign they need to rotate McGregor more and take the burden off his shoulders in matches against weaker opposition under Neil Lennon.

The Celtic left-back admitted back in March that overuse was one of the primary reasons for the hip pain he was suffering, with the player eventually requiring surgery at the end of the season.

Tierney missed 23 of Celtic's 63 games last term, over a third of the season, with the lack of competent back-up in his position directly contributing to him playing games that he perhaps should have sat out prior to his fitness issues.

The season prior he produced similar numbers to McGregor in terms of appearances and minutes played.

Playing 50+ games a season, every season, with just a couple of weeks of rest separating each campaign will eventually take its toll, even on someone as consistent as McGregor.

Celtic finished last season on 25th May and have already return to pre-season less than a month later, with McGregor and other internationalists due to return to training next Monday.

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He was notably more fatigued towards the end of the 2018/19, with energy missing from his performances that was there earlier in the campaign.

Next season Lennon needs to consider that McGregor is not needed in every match and with players such as Nir Bitton, Scott Brown, Olivier Ntcham, Ewan Henderson and Ryan Christie all available to play in central midfield squad management needs to be better.

It will allow the player to make greater impacts in the club's biggest matches and ensure his body doesn't eventually break down.