Virgil van Dijk: Kieran Tierney should stay at Celtic for now

Tierney says captaining his country against the Netherlands was a great honour. Tierney says captaining his country against the Netherlands was a great honour.

Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk says former Celtic team-mate Kieran Tierney should be in no rush to leave the Hoops as his impressive progress continues.

Tierney, 20, reached another milestone in his fledgling career when he donned the Scotland armband in a 1-0 friendly defeat against Van Dijk's Netherlands on Thursday night.

The young defender has also captained Scottish champions Celtic and is closing in on a 100th first-team appearance for his boyhood heroes after signing a new long-term contract last week.

Van Dijk was playing when Tierney came on for his debut at Dens Park in April 2015 and has watched his former team-mate's career take off since then.

Virgil van Dijk made 76 appearances for Celtic between 2013 and 2015.

"He's been doing very well and I think Celtic are very smart to tie him down for the next six years," the Dutchman said. "It's good to see him as the captain as well.

"I can remember that day he made his debut at Dundee. Since then he has been progressing every game."

Van Dijk refused to speculate on how far the left-back, who impressed in central defence against the Netherlands, can go in the game.

Scotland 0-1 Netherlands highlights Scotland 0-1 Netherlands highlights

"That's not up to me but it's good to see he's making progress," he said. "He was the captain of his country and that's very special at 20-years-old.

"I don't even know if he wants to go to the Premier League. Celtic is an amazing club for him as well and I don't think there is any rush for him to leave."

Scotland's Kieran Tierney (R) looks to greet his former club colleague.

Tierney has been a key part of Celtic's record 63-match unbeaten run in domestic football and Van Dijk believes their achievement has been underrated by some pundits.

On Celtic's run, he said: "It's amazing and I don't think people really understand how big an achievement it is. They should get all the credit for it because it's not something that happens a lot.

"I'm happy for the club and the fans, and also for the players of course. It doesn't matter if it's Scotland or anywhere else, it's an amazing achievement and people don't really understand how big it is."