Brendan Rodgers patted the exhausted Celtic skipper on the back as he went out, the outcome of an intense match still very much up in the air and the Scottish Cup semi-final evenly poised at 1-1.
McGregor was visibly upset that his best efforts to set up the main event at the national stadium on May 25 had come up empty.
It was never going to be possible for the charismatic 30-year-old onfield leader to play the whole ninety minutes against a resolute Dons team that was willing to fight to the last man.
There was an obvious prearranged understanding that the midfielder would play for a segment of the encounter before making way for Tomoki Iwata, a more than capable deputy in the anchorman role.
It was a gamble that came so close to a spectacular backfire.
Please don’t accuse me of being smart after the event. I voiced my concerns over McGregor’s fitness levels in a pre-match article in CQN yesterday.
I had seen nothing to enthuse over in the player’s two brief appearances in the 3-3 draw at Ibrox and 3-0 win over St Mirren since his last start against Dundee on February 28 when he was withdrawn at the interval of the 7-1 romp.
It emerged the skipper had been troubled with an Achilles problem and I know these are injuries that need to be treated with a lot of respect.
McGregor missed four games on the bounce – Hearts (0-2), Livingston (4-2 and 3-0) and St Johnstone (3-1) – before getting just over 30 minutes against Philippe Clement’s outfit in Govan.
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