A Celtic XI will play Morton at Cappielow on Monday (kick-off 7.30pm) in a testimonial for long serving kit-man Andy Bryan.
With the Champions League qualifier against Stjarnan coming two days later the Celtic side will be made up out of the development squad who are currently training in Valencia.
Morton won promotion to the Championship and will provide a strong test for Stevie Frail’s squad with the development side undergoing a change of emphasis with a number of players going out on loan.
So far Stuart Findlay, Calum Waters, Conor McManus, Paul McMullan and Michael Duffy have all gone out on loan with further deals expected in the next couple of days.
Four of those players were in the side that thrashed Sevco 5-2 in the final of the SFA Youth Cup with the loan route being taken to accelerate the development of those players.
With Joe Thomson, Jamie Lindsay, Luke Donnelly, Eoghan O’Connell and Aiden Nesbitt likely to join the list of players on loan the new development side will have a new look to it with players like Fiacre Kelleher, Jamie McCart, Regan Hendry and Mark Hill are likely to form the backbone of the side supplemented by first team players needing game time.
Leigh Griffiths, Stefan Scepovic and Tom Rogic all featured in a number of Development League matches last season with four players aged over 20 plus an over-age goalkeeper allowed.
As well as the match against Morton friendlies have been arranged against Turriff United (July 18), Raith Rovers (July 21) and East Kilbride (July 25) Â with the Development League fixtures expected to be published this week.