James McClean relishing chance to play at Celtic

Ireland's James McClean is looking forward to playin at Parkhead if he's selected for Scott Brown's testimonial at the end of May.

The Creggan man has admitted he ‘would give anything’ to play for the SPL champions and with West Brom’s almost inevitable relegation looming, there remains a possibility of joining Brendan Rodgers men in the summer.

However, later this month McClean is hoping he’s selected by Martin O’Neill to line out against his favourite team in the friendly match which is set to follow Celtic’s potential ‘double treble’ celebration parade should they win the Scottish Cup.

“It’ll be a great occasion for Scott Brown who has had a remarkable career at Celtic and he’s been a great servant to the club as well,” said McClean. “Being a Celtic fan as well it’ll be fantastic to play at Celtic Park so I’m looking forward to that if selected. It should be a good day.”

It will be the first of three scheduled matches for Ireland this summer with games against France and USA to follow.

And while McClean stressed his pride at pulling on the Irish jersey, he can’t hide his frustration at not being part of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

“It’s games we look forward to. This summer is going to be tough with the World Cup going on but we’ve got games so I always want to do the country proud, do myself proud and it’s a great honour and privilege to play for Ireland. We want to win those games. So I’ll look forward to those matches but it won’t make up for not playing at the World Cup this summer.”