Such has been James Forrest’s contribution to Celtic this season that the Scotland internationalist might as well spend his summer going for an Iron Man contest.

The winger currently tops a stats league for the most appearances of any player in professional football, a significant turnaround from the days in his early career when he was beset by repeated niggly injuries. But despite the marathon campaign, Forrest has one big push left as Celtic look to write their names into the history books today at the national stadium. “

It’s around 63 games, maybe a wee bit more,” he said. “But that’s what you want to do. You want to play at the highest level with Celtic and play in the Champions League. You want to play for your country as well.

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“Those are things you want to achieve when you are coming through. I’m doing that just now but it just makes you want to play even more. You just want to keep playing once you get a momentum and rhythm.

“You want big games and when you came back in a pre-season you understand that it’s going to be three games a week until Christmas.

“It is good because you want to keep playing – if you don’t play well in one game then you quickly have a chance to put it right.

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“If you are constantly playing games then it shows you are successful.” Forrest has a season best in front of goal this term with 17 goals, but the very first goal he scored for the club was on his debut against Motherwell. “It was about eight years ago,” he recalled.

“It’s incredible that I’ve gone on to win so many medals and it’s nice to hear that I’m one of the most decorated players at the club.

“It shows you are doing things right and for me to be at a club like this for so long is a positive.

“I will think about that after my career but for now I just want to win as many games and trophies as I can.”