There is a compelling argument to suggest the suitability of Callum McGregor as a future Celtic captain. A future Celtic manager might offer some debate too. But when it comes to the here and now the midfielder is content to give his current day job the full attention it needs.

McGregor has become Celtic’s Mr Versatility. His tactical nous has been fostered by a career in which he “has played everywhere” but also through his own continued studies of the game. A career in coaching appears likely when the 25-year-old hangs up his boots but any cramming at the minute is centred around what he is asked to do on the pitch.

“I would quite like to be a coach one day,” he said. “It’s too early to think about it now, but I do think I have that eye when I’m watching football to try and watch it tactically as opposed to wherever the ball is going. It’s definitely something I’d think about.”

Whether Alex McLeish positions McGregor where he has excelled for his club of late in the absence of Scott Brown or whether he plays him in a more advanced role given that John McGinn is the latest withdrawal from the squad remains to be seen. But certainly, what is not in doubt is how pivotal McGregor has become to the national set-up.

Which is an interesting shift. There was a clamour to have McGregor included in the national squads when Gordon Strachan was in charge of the national team, with the shouts falling on deaf ears for a time. McGregor was involved in the World Cup qualifying squads against Slovenia and Slovakia without coming off the bench last year and it was only in a friendly against Holland when Malky MacKay was taking temporary charge of Scotland where he really came into the picture.

By then McGregor was a mainstay of Brendan Rodgers’ side, scoring and performing in the Champions League and one of the key cogs of Celtic’s domestic dominance.

“I was disappointed,” he admitted. “I was desperate to play. I was doing well at club level and scoring goals and sometimes football has a funny way of working in that you can chuck a player in there and he can do something. You know when you are doing well and there was a bit of talk about it at the time, but managers have got the players they trust and the team were doing well at that point. They were right up towards qualifying.

“You don’t have an argument when that’s the case and the boys are doing well. It was just a case of me biding my time.

“I had just sort of burst onto the Celtic scene again at that time scoring goals and playing well in big games, so to go straight into the internationals might have been a jump too much. You just never know in football. For me, it was just getting to that stage and really building on my Celtic career first. Now I have 200 games for Celtic and feel established, so I try to kick on and be a part of the Scotland stuff.

“It has come full cycle in just a year. I am the type of player and the type of guy that I want people to look at me and say that he is the type of player who is going to drive the team forward or he is going to go in there and make the play. When you play at a big club like Celtic that is expected of you and I am the type of boy who wants to take the responsibility.”

So far McGregor has just seven full caps for Scotland yet the perception will be that he is one of the more experienced players in McLeish’s squad. Much of that comes from his exposure to top level football with Celtic, the experience of which has meant that the step in the international set-up has been a straigforward one for the midfielder.

“I have experienced a lot of big games now and I think that helps you,” he said. “It relaxes you. You know that you have been in difficult places before and come out the other end having been successful. From a personal experience, the more you see it the more calm you are about it. You know this is what you need to do to get through it. Everyone is different and prepares for games differently, but the boys just do it individually and then come together to have that level of calmness and believe we can get the results. I don’t have superstitions. My state of mind now is that I’ve played a lot of big games, came through, done well and people are speaking well of you, you take confidence from that.”

As the volume of call-offs would appear to indicate, Albania away is not a fixture that has set pulses racing. Not only can Scotland ill afford to be sniffy about such meetings but it is in claiming points and results in such places that can ultimately set the foundations for more significant success.

“You know that it is always tough to go away from home, especially these places where it is the back of nowhere,” said McGregor. “The atmosphere can be slightly different to the European stuff but the more you experience that the more it helps you as a player. The Celtic lads in the squad will be trying to help the other lads with that and Andy has had a lot of that too of going to different places. It is about coming together and trying to harness that experience that we have got and trying to take it into the games.”