Celtic's Callum McGregor lifts lid on Kris Boyd 'reaching out' after controversial face-mask comments

Celtic captain Callum McGregor has revealed he has spoken to Kris Boyd following the former Rangers striker's controversial comments in the wake of last week’s Old Firm fixture.

Boyd made reference to the fact that the Celtic midfielder was wearing a protective face-mask during the 3-0 victory over Rangers last Wednesday night in his first match since since suffering a fractured cheekbone against Alloa in the Scottish Cup.

Boyd appeared to insinuate McGregor should have been targeted due to his facial injury when he wrote in his Scottish Sun column: "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 comments caused uproar among Celtic fans on social media and the club responded with a statement revealing the matter was “being addressed by the club.”

Callum Mcgregor wore a face-mask against Rangers in his first match back since fracturing his cheekbone (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Boyd later moved to clarify his comments insisting he was not meaning the midfielder should have been deliberately hurt. He stressed: "That is absolutely and unequivocally NOT the case. It was simply meant as a criticism of the Rangers players for their failure to get close to McGregor.”

The Celtic skipper has now given his own response and insisted he is happy to let bygones be bygones after confirming the Sky Sports pundit had “reached out”.

"Obviously when you first see the comment it doesn't make great reading. It doesn't look good in that sense," McGregor said.

"It's been rectified since then, and we've 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 move on and it's cool."

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