Callum McGregor 'had a chat' with Kris Boyd over mask comments

Celtic captain Callum McGregor has spoken to former Rangers striker Kris Boyd over comments made about his protective face mask.

Writing in a newspaper column, Boyd expressed surprise that Rangers did not “test out” the mask during their 3-0 derby defeat last week.

Celtic earlier said the club was “addressing” the matter and Boyd subsequently denied that he had wanted McGregor to be deliberately hurt.

Speaking ahead of the league leaders’ trip to Aberdeen on Wednesday night, McGregor said: “When you first see the comments, it doesn’t make great reading. It doesn’t look good in that sense, but it has been rectified since then and we have had a chat as well.

“So it’s put to bed now, it’s absolutely fine, we just move on. I think he recognises it was a poor choice of words in the beginning and, for me, that’s it.

“We have had a chat, we move on and it’s cool.”

Boyd had written: “Callum McGregor played with a fractured cheekbone. The fact he managed to get through the 90 minutes without anyone testing out that face mask is another story, but his commitment to the team was tremendous.”

The pundit later insisted he had “unequivocally” not meant to imply that he had wanted one of the Rangers players to “intentionally try and hurt the midfielder”.

“It was simply meant as a criticism of the Rangers players for their failure to get close to McGregor,” Boyd added.

McGregor made a surprise comeback against Rangers 11 days after breaking his cheekbone in two places in a collision with an Alloa player.

The 28-year-old also played with his mask on against Motherwell on Sunday as Celtic recorded a 4-0 win.

The Scotland international said: “It’s getting better every game. It’s not too restrictive in that sense in terms of vision.

“It’s more getting comfortable and I’m getting used to it while I still need it.”