Callum McGregor insists Celtic are hungry and ready to devour the “good stuff” of an Old Firm triple header which will go a long way to deciding whether they serve up the Treble.
The Hoops face a Scottish Cup semi final against Rangers two weeks after the next powderkeg Premiership clash with their arch rivals at Ibrox on April 3.
A third meeting of the sides will follow-on soon after as the tightest title race for over a decade reaches a conclusion.
And fired-up McGregor - chasing his seventh league championship and first since being named captain - has challenged his team mates to embrace the pressure with a domestic clean sweep still on.
He said: “This is the stage of the season, maybe ten games to go, that you love as a player.
“We’ve got big international games coming up, then we’re back in and full focus, eight or nine weeks of: ‘Here we go, this is the good stuff’.
“This is what you play football for, the big games where you need to stand up and be counted.
“That’s the most exciting period of the season. When big games come around, semi finals, finals hopefully, big league games.
“That’s where you’re judged.
“You have to embrace it. If you want to play at Celtic then you have to embrace that pressure of having 10 massive games and having to win them all to have a successful season.”
Celtic have gone 30 games unbeaten domestically after a turbulent start to the season which followed Ange Postecoglou’s overhaul of the Hoops squad.
Plenty of questions were asked of the Aussie and his players in the early part of the campaign.
But McGregor insists they’ve answered the majority of them.
The biggest challenge of all now lies in wait over the course of the next eight weeks. And the skipper is confident his team mates have the hunger and mental strength to see them over the line.
McGregor, speaking at the launch of the Billy Against Dementia Golf Day and Dinner, said: “We have done great up to now but this is where the period comes in that you have to stand up and be counted.
“As a group, whenever we have had a challenge like that, then more often than not we have rose to the challenge.
“Just looking at the boys you can see in training every day they are ready for it.
“They are enjoying it and are going to embrace it. Here’s hoping we can do that."
Celtic are hoping to be close to full strength for the run-in with question marks still hanging over Kyogo Furuhashi's return date.
He said: “It would be good timing if we could get Kyogo and David Turnbull as fit as possible for the run-in, we need everyone fit. We’ll generally only have one game a week, so that makes every week of training really important.
“The more options you have, the more standards in training go up and more more selection headaches the manager has. Hopefully that’ll stand us in good stead.”
• Callum McGregor was speaking at the launch of the Billy Against Dementia Golf Day and Dinner to be held on Friday, June 3, at Cameron House Hotel.
The dinner will be hosted by Sky Sports Hayley McQueen with funds raised going to providing respite care for former footballers suffering from dementia. The event is being supported by the SFA, SPFL and PFA Scotland and tickets can be booked on: www.eventbright.co.uk
