Watch Hibernian vs Celtic on Sunday - coverage starts on Sky Sports Football at midday
Sunday 16 December 2018 08:15, UK
Callum McGregor believes Celtic have to "put the foot to the floor" as they prepare to face Hibernian in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday.
The Hoops are in the midst of a nine-game December having started the month in style by winning the Scottish League Cup final against Aberdeen at Hampden Park.
Since then they have regained top spot in the league and secured their place in the knockout stages of the Europa League.
Brendan Rodgers must now prepare his side for five more Scottish Premiership matches before the end of the year and McGregor says they must power through a relentless fixture list until the winter break.
"The fixtures have been pretty gruelling and the boys have been playing games every couple of days at high intensity," he said ahead of their trip to Edinburgh to face Hibs - live on Sky Sports.
"Another positive is we went through on Thursday night [in the Europa League]. We have to pick ourselves up again and Easter Road is a tough place to go.
"We have had tough games against them as well there so we need to be fully ready for that. We need to recover and be flying for Sunday.
"November and December are a big couple of months in the fixtures and if you get through them and come out the other side well you are in a pretty good place.
"We have the cup in the bag, we have five games left so we have to put the foot to the floor and get as many points as we can."
Celtic were knocked out by Zenit St Petersburg in the last 32 of the Europa League last season and McGregor is looking forward to playing another "proper" team when the draw for the knockout stages is made on Monday.
"It is going to be tough," he added. "We dropped out of the Champions League last year and got Zenit, who are still a big team, so we know the teams we come up against are proper teams.
"We have to be focused and certainly play better than we did on Thursday night [a 2-1 home defeat against Salzburg]. But we have to fancy our chances whoever the draw gives us."
