Funny quirks- watch as Callum McGregor laughs off the James Tavernier question

Callum McGregor diplomatically side-stepped around a question on his great rivalry with James Tavernier.

Faced with multiple options to question the Celtic midfielder one reporter opted for a deep dive into the stats to come up with his blockbuster question.

Apparently since his scoring debut in Iceland nine years ago Tavernier is the opponent that he has faced most often in his career.

Since the former Wigan ace moved to Ibrox in the summer of 2015 he has picked up two major winners medals, during the same period McGregor has added 15 medals to his collection.

By no stretch of the imagination is this an epic rivalry, it is not Veira v Keane regardless of the hype and spin that takes place between now and lunchtime on Saturday.

2 minutes 14 seconds

QUESTION: If you both play this will be the 30^th game that you’ve played against James Tavernier, you’ve never played against a player more in your career, it is exactly the same for him. Does it feel that way, that you seem to come up against him so often

C McG: (smiling) To be honest I never even knew that or thought about it. You know there is too much going on when you get to these games. You are just focussed on trying to help the team, win them as much as you possibly can so. Football throws up these funny little quirks now and again, you know I wasn’t aware of it but obviously nice to see as well.

Despite that put down answer the report on a mission was straight back in asking about the two captains.

McGregor smiled politely when he said that he had never met Tavernier socially, undeterred he was reminded that the first ‘clash’ was when Rotherham played Notts County, unsurprisingly the Celtic skipper had no recollection of that epic League One fixture.

McGregor was a safe, experienced and sensible choice to speak to the media today, tomorrow Ange Postecoglou will be taking the questions with only one winner in that battle of wits.