DORUS CALLS IT A DAY

VETERAN keeper Dorus De Vries has announced his retirement from football.

The 38-year-old Dutchman’s last involvement during his three years at Celtic was as back-up to Scott Bain in the 2-1 Scottish Cup Final against Hearts at Hampden on May 25.

De Vries, who was one of Brendan Rodgers’ first signings for the Hoops when he arrived in £400,000 deal from Nottingham Forest in August 2016, won three league titles, three Scottish Cups and three League Cups during his time at the club.

The popular former Dunfermline, Wolves and Swansea No.1 will now pursue his coaching badges in his homeland.

His exit promotes young Irishman Conor Hazard to third in the pecking order behind Scotland internationals Bain and Craig Gordon.

In a nice gesture, Celtic sent their best wishes to De Vries in his future endeavours and extended the same gratitude to departing players Emilio Izaguirre, Cristian Gamboa, Regan Hendry, Dedryck Boyata, Mikael Lustig, Filip Benkovic, Scott Allan, Youssouf Mulumbu, Oliver Burke and Jeremy Toljan.

The club extended the same thoughts to outgoing reserve players Reece Willison, Ross McLaughlin, Wallace Duffy, Thomas Caffrey, Lewis Bell, Ciaran Diver, PJ Crossan and Kristi Marku.

And the champions welcomed back returning loan players Ross Doohan, Jack Aitchison and Robbie Deas.